Arizona State transfer Sam Cunliffe closing in on a decision?

By Matt Tait     Jan 5, 2017

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Kansas University basketball recruiting

Sam Cunliffe, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound shooting guard who was ranked No. 36 overall in the Rivals.com recruiting class of 2016, was in Lawrence this week to visit Kansas and left with a great feel for the KU program.

“It was amazing,” Cunliffe told TheShiver.com’s Matt Scott following his visit, which included a trip to the KU-K-State game on Tuesday night. “That game was insane!!!! I loved every minute of it.”

So much so that Cunliffe, who started 10 games for Arizona State this season but decided at semester to transfer, has chosen to shut down his recruiting.

“No more visits,” Cunliffe told Scott on Wednesday. “Deciding real soon. No more than 3 days,” he added.

If that timeline holds, Cunliffe should have a decision by the end of the week and the whole situation certainly has the feel of the young man picking Kansas.

Named the Seattle Times’ State Basketball Player of the Year following his senior season at Rainier Beach High, Cunliffe picked Arizona State from serious interest from California, Colorado, Gonzaga, Minnesota, Oregon, UNLV, Utah, Washington, Washington State and others.

A Seattle native who was the highest rated recruit landed by the Sun Devils since James Harden, announced in December that he was leaving ASU despite starting the first 10 games of his freshman season and averaging 9.5 points in 25.4 minutes.

**In other recruiting news…** Scott and other recruiting analysts are reporting that KU coach Bill Self will travel to Oklahoma today to watch Class of 2017 point guard Trae Young, who remains one of the top targets in KU’s current class.

Young said last Fall that he wanted to take his time with the decision and get an opportunity to see each team in the mix play and watch how their seasons play out a little bit.

“I’m getting near to the end of my recruitment and I’m starting to look at these teams play and come to a conclusion what school I want to choose so it was a really big thing for them to come out and I’m really happy for that,” Young told A Sea of Blue, SB Nation’s Kentucky site, in late November.

Asked when he might announce, Young said, “Probably early January. Don’t have a date set yet, but probably early January.”

Other programs remain in the mix, but most analysts believe Young’s recruitment is a hot contest between Kansas and in-state school Oklahoma.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.