Bouknight Bound for UConn
Tuesday was James Bouknight's 18th birthday.
He celebrated by making a verbal commitment to the University of Connecticut.
The MacDuffie School and PSA Cardinals guard had taken official visits to Virginia Tech, Miami, and Connecticut in recent weeks before announcing his final decision to ESPN on Tuesday.
Bouknight missed the regular season of the EYBL with injury but returned in time to have a big July after returning at the Peach Jam.
"I had already built a relationship with [assistant] Coach Kimani [Young] when he was at Minnesota and that continued when he came to UConn with Coach Hurley," Bouknight told ESPN. "He stayed in touch with me throughout my injury process and that meant a lot to me and my family. We trusted him," Bouknight told ESPN. "Then when I got a chance to build a relationship with Coach Hurley, his track record and pedigree as a coach, along with UConn's winning tradition and history of putting guys in the NBA, it was all I wanted in my college choice."
Despite the injury, Bouknight's stock has been on a rapid rise throughout the last year. He quickly asserted himself as a high-major talent upon arriving at MacDuffie last fall, continued to attract new suitors throughout the summer, and is, in many ways, still just scratching the surface of his potential.
An ultra-smooth guard with great touch and instincts to match his size and length, Bouknight is a three-range scoring threat who is still just filling out his body and learning how to be consistently assertive. As he continues to evolve, he has an opportunity to both play immediate minutes for the Huskies next year and eventually develop into one of the primary offensive threats.
Below are some of his July highlights from Las Vegas.
James Bouknight