Callaway senior point guard and Gatorade Player of the Year Daeshun Ruffin commits to Ole Miss.

Callaway senior point guard and Gatorade Player of the Year Daeshun Ruffin had five of the seven teams in the SEC West hoping to add him to their 2021 roster. The top 40 recruit just announced his commitment to Ole Miss and says for the most part his decision was made based on the great relationship he has with their coaching staff. 

“I would mostly just say it was the home feeling,” said Ruffin. “The coaches you know they’re great guys. We talk often, probably like every day. They just made me a priority ever since they recruited me in the ninth grade and it was just a no brainer.”

Ruffin knows how important consitency is at the next level and plans to make that his primary goal for his senior season at Callaway.

“I want to most definitely win. I want to get better and I want to be ready for the next level. I want to do everything consistent you know on a daily basis.”

While Ruffin’s entire family has been exceptionally supportive of his basketball careeer, his respect for his mom is what motivates him the most. 

“Well my family has been very supportive of me but the reason why I keep playing so well would have to be my mom, you know waking up and seeing her go to work every day and giving her last to me.”

Callaway head coach David Sanders and former Ole Miss basketball alum says while he is excited Ruffin chose to be a rebel, he would have been happy with any decision he made.

“Well I think the misconception is that you know I shaded him toward Ole Miss,” said Coach Sanders. “Daeshun is actually the first player I’ve had in seven years at Callaway to go to Ole Miss. I always let my players make their own decision and he had a great relationship with Coach Davis who I thought did a great job recruiting him. I am extremely happy that he chose Ole Miss, but at the same time I would have been happy wherever he chose to go.”

Sanders noticed the most improvement in Ruffin as a player this past season where he learned to become a leader, which helped the team bring a state championship home to Jackson.

“I think this year was his biggest improvement because he took a big step in leadership this year of understanding when to do what and just taking other guys’ mentality on as a task to help guys become better and just kind of making sure we gelled as a team and he deserves a lot of credit for that. I think that’s what really made us a great team in the state. We went undefeated and we were able to win a championship for the first time in the last four years.”