Kyle Cuffe on signing with Kansas: "I'm ready"
On December 19, 2020, Kyle Cuffe, Jr. the 6-foot-2, 173-pound guard from Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., verbally committed to Bill Self and Kansas. On April 15, 2021, Cuffe, a four-star prospect, made his reclassification to the 2021 class official by signing a National Letter-of-Intent with Kansas.
“Kyle is a young man that has great upside and the determination to be a great player,” said Kansas head coach Bill Self on Thursday afternoon. “He’s an explosive athlete that makes plays on both ends of the floor. His father, Kyle Sr., was a great player at St. John’s and has been instrumental in Kyle’s development.
“He is already a well-prepared player coming from a powerhouse school like Blair Academy under the excellent tutelage of Joe Mantegna,” he added.
During his sophomore year, Cuffe averaged 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game. Blair Academy posted a 24-3 record in 2019-20, was Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) Champions and State Prep A runner-up. Cuffe was named to the 2020 All-MAPL team.
Due to COVID-19, this past season Blair Academy played only two games and Cuffe averaged 25.0 points, scoring 28 and 22 points, respectively.
Before announcing his commitment to Kansas in December, Cuffe had received scholarship offers from the likes of Connecticut, Georgetown, Georgia, Kansas State, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Texas A&M, UCLA, and others.
Talk of reclassifying first started when Cuffe verbally committed to Kansas, but those talks eventually died down.
However, after talking it over with his family and others, Cuffe ultimately made the decision to reclassify, and signed a National Letter-of-Intent with Kansas on Thursday afternoon.
“Yes, I am,” said Cuffe when asked if he’s officially reclassified and signed with Kansas. “I just talked to my family, just talked to my high school coach, and just came to the decision that it would be best to come now. Yeah, I'm ready. I'm excited.”
While in the process of completing his junior year at Blair Academy, Cuffe, not long from now, will make the move from New Jersey to Lawrence. In fact, if everything goes as expected, the talented guard will arrive on campus on June 8.
Instead of finishing out his prep career a year from now, Cuffe ultimately made the decision to leave a year earlier than expected. For Cuffe, why the decision to leave Blair Academy for Kansas?
“I decided basically just to complete more,” said Cuffe. “That's really it. I felt like I could take it to the next level. Coach Self was excited as well as Coach Norm (Roberts). They were all excited and happy that I made this decision because this decision was always up in the air from the moment I got the offer, that it was a possibility.
Since the end of the season, Self and his staff have completely changed the look of the roster. After losing to USC on March 22, Self said a change was coming, and that’s exactly what is currently taking place.
Gone are Tyon Grant-Foster, Tristan Enaruna, Latrell Jossell, Gethro Muscadin, and Bryce Thompson. Ochai Agbaji and Jalen Wilson are currently testing the NBA waters and both could return, while it would appear that a decision on Marcus Garrett hasn’t been made with 100 percent certainty.
Kansas returns Christian Braun, Dajuan Harris, Chris Teahan, Michael Jankovich, David McCormack and, Mitch Lightfoot. New additions to the roster include Zach Clemence, K.J. Adams, Kyle Cuffe, Bobby Pettiford, Sydney Curry, Cam Martin, and Joseph Yesufu. Currently, the staff has one available scholarship on the table, which could very well be filled in the next week or so.
When looking at the roster, Cuffe believes that he has the ability to compete right away, but that isn’t his main focus.
“Yeah, I think I could compete,” he said. “That's not my main focus. The main focus right now is just basically standing up there, connecting with the team. When I get there, that's when I'm going to show that I can really play and that I'm going to be on the floor.”