Recruiting Update: Darius Guinn (2018 Grant HS/Central Wyoming JC)
Two years ago at this time, Darius Guinn was basking in the shine of a 6A state championship trophy with his Grant High School teammates. Now the solid 6-foot-7 swingman is coming off a solid two-year career at Central Wyoming…
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Continue ReadingTwo years ago at this time, Darius Guinn was basking in the shine of a 6A state championship trophy with his Grant High School teammates. Now the solid 6-foot-7 swingman is coming off a solid two-year career at Central Wyoming and is hoping to find his new college home. Things are very much in flux with the world so Guinn is unable to do too much with his recruitment, but he has some ideas about what he’s looking for in his next destination.
Like everyone else, Central Wyoming’s season is over and Guinn reflected back on his career at the school. “My freshman year, we went 11-20 where we played a really hard schedule and it was our coach’s first year and it was a hard adjustment as we had all freshman and one sophomore,” Guinn said. “Our reflected how young we were but it was nice to come back and finally have a sophomore group and we ended up flipping our record to 20-11, which is really huge when you talk about where you’re trying to build a program altogether.”
“Personally I played well as I finished in the top five in scoring in our region,” Guinn continued. “I ended up being Third Team All-Region which was huge, especially since it’s one of the top basketball regions in the country for JUCO. Overall, it went well.”
On the year, Guinn averaged 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. The numbers are up from his freshman season when he tallied 12 points and four rebounds a game. Over the course of his JC career he feels he’s grown in multiple ways as a player.
“I feel like any young guy going into college it was about confidence and believing in yourself,” Guinn said. “Especially for me I had a big leadership role which I had to adjust to my sophomore year. Last year I wasn’t as much someone people looked up to but this year if we needed like a big bucket, I’d go and do it, and if things were going bad I was the one to talk to the group and get the guys together.”
“And my overall basketball is at an entirely different level than high school,” Guinn continued. “My senior year I was coming off a completely fractured spine and it’s crazy that now my athletic ability, it’s steadily increasing and I haven’t even reached my full potential. This year I went from not being able to dunk at all to getting bang-outs in games.”
Four-year college programs monitored Guinn’s progress throughout his career and during his sophomore season some scholarship offers started to materialize. Currently his D-I offers are from Bryant, NJIT, and Southern and his D-II offers are from Alaska-Anchorage, Catawba, Western Oregon, and Western Washington. The University of Portland has shown some interest and he was scheduled to make an unofficial visit to campus before the NCAA shut down any recruiting activity prior to April 15.
“I don’t really have any favorites right now,” Guinn said. “I was really looking forward to making my visits but it doesn’t look like that will be happening until the end of April. So right now I’m kind of in a spot where I might need to make a decision without taking a visit.”
With multiple options, Guinn is staying open for now but does appear to have a plan – even if it means going to the other side of the country. “Ever since I was a little kid my dream has been to play D-I,” Guinn said. “I think it’s every kid’s kid to reach that one percent of people in the whole world that gets to do it. And I wouldn’t have done all this coming back from my spine surery, playing my senior year, and going to junior college if I didn’t want to accomplish that goal.”
“I feel like if you’re a basketball player and that’s what you want to do as long as possible you’ve got to have a by any means necessary state of mind,” Guinn continued. “That’s kind of where I’m at.”
UPDATE (3/21): Guinn has made a verbal commitment to Bryant