Former Kansas Jayhawks guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. is headed to his dad’s alma mater
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kyle Cuffe Jr. will complete his college journey at St. John's.
- Cuffe averaged 7.3 points and 1.4 rebounds per game while starting 14 of 31 games.
- Cuffe and his father are the third father-and-son duo to play for St. John's.
Former Kansas Jayhawks basketball guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. will complete his college journey at St. John’s after playing at KU, Syracuse and Mercer, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino announced on Monday.
Cuffe is the son of former St. John’s standout Kyle Cuffe, who played at the New York school from 2000-04. They will be the third father-and-son duo to play for the St. John’s men’s hoops program, joining Gerry and Tom Calabrese and Neil and “Fuzzy” Levane.
Cuffe redshirted during the Jayhawks’ 2022 national championship season and then played in just two games for head coach Bill Self before suffering a season-ending injury in 2022-23.
“Kyle comes to us with great experience at Kansas, Syracuse and Mercer and now St. John’s,” Pitino said. “He will help solidify our great backcourt.”
In 2022-23, the 6-foot-2 Cuffe was a teammate of former KU forward Zuby Ejiofor, who transferred to St. John’s and became the 2025-26 Big East player of the year. Coming out of high school, Cuffe chose KU over St. John’s, Pitt, Georgia, Texas A&M and Kansas State.
“Cuffe should provide valuable experience and depth alongside incoming British point guard Quinn Ellis, Columbia transfer point guard Avery Brown and returning combo guard Ian Jackson and returning guard Lefty Liotopoulos,” wrote Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com.
Cuffe averaged 7.3 points and 1.4 rebounds per game at Mercer last season. He started 14 of 31 games.
He hit 39.0% of his shots, including 33.6% from 3-point range and 75.0% from the free-throw line. He scored in double figures 12 times, highlighted by a season-high 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting (3-of-5 from deep) against Wofford.
Cuffe also had a three-game stretch in which he scored 15 points against UNC Greensboro, 17 against VMI and 14 against Chattanooga.
Prior to playing for Mercer, Cuffe spent two years at Syracuse, where he appeared in 59 career games and averaged 4.2 points per contest.
A native of Harlem, N.Y., Cuffe played high school basketball at Blair Academy in New Jersey, where he was ranked 109th nationally by 247Sports.com.
Per rumbleinthegarden.com, Cuffe’s dad, Kyle Sr., “made 59 starts in 116 career games for the Red Storm from 2000 to 2004, averaging 8.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He made an appearance on the Johnnies’ 2002 NCAA Tournament squad and was a member of the program’s last NIT championship squad in 2003.”
