Darius Garland, the 6-foot-1 point guard from Brentwood Academy (TN), is focusing on four schools and broke down his upcoming visits and plans with Krysten Peek of Rivals.com while at the USA Basketball minicamp in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Having visited Vanderbilt (Sept. 23-25) Garland will also take officials to Kentucky (Oct. 13-15), Indiana (Oct. 20-22), and UCLA (Oct. 27-29).
He visited Vanderbilt the same weekend as five-star shooting guard Romeo Langford.
“It was really fun,” he said. “The fans new me by name, of course, hometown. It was really great. Coach [Bryce] Drew is a really good guy, love the staff.”
Vanderbilt is pitching him to be a leader.
“Yeah leading the team is one thing that point guards get to do so that’s my main goal and my main focus this weekend,” he said. “Just coming in and learning from the other great coaches and picking their brains.”
He next visits Kentucky for Big Blue Madness along with Zion Williamson, Bol Bol and James Wiseman. The Wildcats already have Immanuel Quickley in the fold but Garland feels they would complement each other.
“I think it would work pretty good, we complement each other really well,” he said. “We played in Italy together and he can really shoot the ball. He’s a really good shooter, really active, really long. He’s a really good player.”
Winston Garland, the former NBA player and Darius’ father, grew up in Indiana, where he will visit the following weekend.
“It’s going really great,” he said. “Coach [Archie] Miller is a really good guy, the coaching staff is really fun to be around. And I know a couple that committed last year so I’m getting input from them and hopefully I can have fun on my visit.”
As for their message, the players said, “Coach Miller is a great guy, really hard on them and he’s going to really make them work.”
Finally, Garland visits UCLA the weekend of Oct. 27 along with Williamson and Moses Brown.
“It’s going to be really great,” he said. “Coach [Steve] Alford is a really great guy. The in-home visit went really well. They have a lot of young players, so that’s the biggest thing this year so I think they can be really good this year.”
UCLA has produced a string of successful point guards, most recently Lonzo Ball.
“He really lets his point guards run the floor and just play their game, so I like that a lot” he said.
He hopes to decide in November.
“Hopefully,” he said.
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Photo: 247Sports
