NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. – The 2024 Peach Jam is under way and represents the final major event of the grassroots season. Rivals national analyst Rob Cassidy arrived on the scene Sunday and dove right into the action on the floor and the recruiting whispers that surrounded it upon arrival.

Bellow, Cassidy shares some of what he heard during his first day with boots on the ground at the summer’s marquee event.

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College coaches were not permitted to contact members of the 2026 class until last month, and No. 1-ranked prospect Brandon McCoy Jr. was at the forefront of a lot of coaches’ minds when the contact period began. On Sunday, the five-star guard said the list of coaches that reached out to him when it became permissible on June 15 was too long to attempt to remember, but he had a much easier time remembering the schools that are in frequent and serious contract.

“Cal, USC, Kentucky, Duke and Baylor are the ones that I have really been talking to the most,” McCoy said.

According to McCoy he hasn’t started considering visits but will do so once he puts a bow on his grassroots season at Peach Jam this week, but Duke head coach Jon Scheyer was courtside for his 19-point, four-assist performance on Sunday afternoon and seems to be in the thick of the hunt to get the five-star guard in for a campus tour down the road.

“I’m just worried about Peach Jam right now but some coaches are starting to talk to me about visits and all that,” McCoy said, “I'll worry about that later.”

Darius Acuff Jr. was coy about his college recruitment on Sunday to say the very least, The five-star guard stuck one-word answers and seemed a bit put off by being asked about his commitment timetable.

During a short interview, the Detroit-born star refused to rule out the possibility of taking additional visits and said very little about his options.

“I’m just weighing my options,” Acuff said on Sunday. “I haven’t made my decision on anything … even on visits.”

Others in the know around the gym, however, had more to say about the situation. The chatter in Augusta is that Acuff could be officially off the board in the next month or so, and that Arkansas remains firmly in the driver's seat heading into the final stretch. Kansas technically remains alive in Acuff’s recruitment, but everything seems to be pointing to Fayetteville at this juncture. Acuff has not officially announced a timetable for a decision, but it’s starting to feel as though his recruitment will meet its end well before the calendar flips to September.

Class of 2026 prospect Jaxson Terry isn’t yet ranked, but the Groton (Mass.) Lawrence Academy standout's recent play has put him in the discussion to crack the Rivals150 when it updates down the road. Providence’s Kim English is ahead of the rankings curve with Terry, however, as the young head coach has been prioritizing the 6-foot-5 wing for more than a month already.

“Only one college called me the night when coaches were first allowed to call and that was Providence,” Terry said on Sunday. “More schools called the next day, but it was only Providence that night.”

And it isn’t just phone calls setting the Friars apart. English was seated courtside as Terry turned in a 19-point performance on a neat 6-for-10 shooting while playing for Expressions Elite against Team Final on Tuesday afternoon. If there’s something to be said for early evaluations, it should be said about English, who is making a habit of being among the first to the table when it comes to pursuing talented prospects.

“Coach English likes my game and likes that I always play hard,” Terry said. “I like him a lot, too, he’s a great guy – a great person.”