Brotherly Love - Dan Ruffin and A.J. Guyton

Daniel Ruffin(left) helped guide Peoria Central
to a state title this year. Something his half-brother
A.J. Guyton couldn't do in his time as a Lion.

Central Tradition

By Frank Rusnak
Please excuse Peoria Central point guard Daniel Ruffin if nowadays his smile is an inch or two wider and a couple watts brighter. After all, life is good for little Daniel.

On April 24, Ruffin made it official when he signed on the dotted line to stay at home and play for his local university, Bradley. And what better choice for him?

"He had a great year and was the leader of our team."

Chuck Buescher
Peoria Central Coach

The 5’10” all-stater wowed Peoria for four years as a Lion and had his career culminated with a state title, on Bradley’s home court nonetheless. Being a junior’s junior, little Daniel will get a chance to follow in his father, and Central assistant coach, Dan Ruffin Jr.'s footsteps.

“This area is cool and the opportunity to play in front of my home crowd makes it all the better,” said Daniel, who passed on such schools as Wisconsin-Green Bay, Southwest Missouri State and UTEP.

Daniel, the orchestrator of Central since his sophomore year, helped the team steamroll to the Class AA Title with a 31-1 record for the year. In the championship game, which was won on a last second shot by junior Shaun Livingston, Daniel had a quiet seven points, four assists and three steals. But his importance was never forgotten by Central coach Chuck Buescher.

“Daniel, I think personally was the best senior point guard in Illinois,” Buescher said. “He’s quick and he makes plays that win games. He’s a tremendous all around player and has a tremendous feel for the game. He had a great year and was the leader of our team.”

In the semifinals against Evanston, Daniel posted 23 points and eight steals.

For the season, the future Bradley Brave averaged 13 points and five assists with a 3-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Central's championship was largely dependent on two transfers, Livingston (Peoria Richwoods) and Brandon Lee (Peoria Manual), who both arrived at the beginning of this school year. The guiding force, however, behind the team's title run was the one who had been born as a Central supporter with his brother and father both alumni.

Winning a state title was something that not even Daniel's half-brother A.J. Guyton, a college all-American, could accomplish in his four years at Central. But it didn't help that A.J. came up in a time when one of the state's all-time great teams, the mid-90's Peoria Manual Rams, were rolling through a four-year stretch of state championships from 1994-97.

"A.J. came up in Peoria when we had the Manual teams," said big Dan, A.J.'s step father. "He was probably one of the best players in the area but didn't get a lot of recognition."

Unlike his younger sibling by seven years, A.J. was a scoring guard rather than a smooth distributor. Averaging about 11 points as a sophomore, A.J. upped that to 17 as a starter and a go-to-man his junior year.

"Late in the game when we needed a basket we'd try to go to A.J.," said big Dan, who was also an assistant coach when A.J. played. "He had great offensive skills. The team though was much better when A.J. was a junior than a senior. We were ranked fourth or fifth in the state his junior year and we got upset by Manual in the regional because we were No. 1 in our regional. Manual's third title was A.J.'s senior year."

With a large portion of the team graduating after A.J.'s junior year, he was left somewhat alone, and picked his scoring average up to 22 points a game.

While Bradley pursued A.J. as a senior, he opted to play with Bobby Knight at Indiana and join fellow Peoria prep star, Richwoods' Mike Robinson (Purdue) in the Big Ten.

"A.J. was a tremendous joy to coach," said big Dan. "He was a good player that shot the ball exceptional; a big time player. In high school he was just a tremendous player, but people were talking as much or more about Mike Robinson, but A.J. was just so solid."

After a successful four years with the Hoosiers, which A.J. finished as a first-team Associated Press All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year, he followed that to the NBA.

After being drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the No. 32 pick, he bounced around over the next two years with the Lakers and Golden State Warriors after being declared an unrestricted free agent. A.J.'s journeys brought him to both the NBDL's Mobile Revelers and the Huntsville Flight. In March of this year, he signed on with Skipper Fortitudo in Bologna, Italy, for the team's playoff run.

"I hope he gets back into the League," said little Daniel. "Over the summer he'll come back [to the U.S.] and go to NBA camps and see what happens."

All the way back to the day's A.J. and little Daniel used to post a hanger on the door to their rooms and play Nerf basketball, A.J.'s presence alongside his little brother has been much appreciated and not overlooked one iota.

"I probably learned most of my game by watching him," said little Daniel. "Him being around made it a lot easier. A lot of people don't have people to look up to. It really goes to them two [A.J. and big Dan]; it makes the game a lot easier. Everything revolved around basketball growing up."

Possibly everything was centered towards basketball a little too much for the liking of A.J. and little Daniel's mom, Rhonda Guyton-Ruffin.

"Daniel always wanted to do what he saw his big brother do and with me being a coach, we'd always be in the gym," said big Dan. "Sometimes his mom didn't really like it. But now she appreciates the rewards they are getting out of it. The kids are reaping benefits of something that is a game."

For the residents of this household though, basketball has turned into much more than just a game.