A.J. Guyton, Peoria Central, Class of 1996

While the Peoria Manual Rams were stealing all the headlines in the late nineties winning four consecutive state titles, A.J Guyton had a successful high school career at Peoria Central.

Guyton went on to play collegiately in the Big Ten at Indiana University.  It didn’t take the 6’1’’ combo guard with a deadly cross and silk stroke to make his impact felt in Bloomington.  After averaging nearly 14 points as a freshman, Guyton would become the Big Ten Co-MVP by the time he was a senior averaging nearly 20 points.  He finished his career as the fourth all time leading scorer for one of the most storied programs in the country.

Guyton had a two-year stint in the NBA, one season with the Chicago Bulls, played overseas in Europe, and now currently plays in Argentina.  End to End had the chance to catch up with A.J. about his playing days, and what’s in store for him.

Describe your high school career, and how your recruitment went?

My high school career was pretty good.  Back then I was a pretty good scorer, and I was trying to learn how to become a leader.  It enabled me to get recruited by some division one programs.  At the very beginning there weren’t that many major programs recruiting me.  Playing at Peoria Central gave me a lot of exposure.  I was able to go to the Nike camp, I was able to get on Larry Butler’s Illinois Warriors, and get some exposure at the right AAU tournaments. I got recruited by Indiana, Missouri, St. Louis, Michigan St., and Bradley.

Historically, Peoria has always produced plenty of college basketball players.  Was there ever a rivalry with Chicago?  Where is the better basketball played?

(Laughs).  Obviously at home, I felt like our competition was great up until around 2004.  Then kids starting transferring a lot, and there was a little bit of a drop off.  Chicago definitely has an edge because they have so many more kids and schools.  Peoria’s always been competitive though.  We win our share of championships, and send teams to the state finals every other year.  My argument is always this; I know they respect us and that’s all you can ask for.  They know they could never look past us and they had to bring their A-game or we were going to win.

Talk about what it was like playing for Coach Knight at Indiana.

It was the greatest experience of my life up to this point.  Coach gets a bad rap from people who don’t understand his philosophy or what he’s teaching us inside the basketball team.  I really don’t take into consideration what anybody else says unless you were part of the program.  He made us the men we are today.  If you look, we’re all successful.

You’ve played in the NBA and overseas for several years now, what are you goals moving forward?

My goals are to give back to basketball what it has given to me.  I want to get into coaching at the collegiate level.  What I can bring as a collegiate coach is really need in today’s basketball world.  I’m still young enough to get out there and show what I’m trying to teach.  So my ultimate goal is to be a college coach and give back to it some of the things I got out of it.

What were the main differences in the game between the NBA and overseas?

The style overseas is totally different.  You have to restructure your game to fit in overseas.  The pace is different, and how the game is officiated too.  You have to be in top-notch shape.  Going from big men who dunk all the time in America, to big men who shoot threes.  I always cringe when I hear NBA guys are starting a career overseas because I know what type of adjustment they’re going to have to make.  It’s not easy.

What do you think of IHSA’s switch to four class basketball?

I don’t like the switch.  It was perfect the way it was.  It’s a big mess now.  Unless they have a round robin of the four champions, then you will never know who the real champion is.  I prefer they go back to the old format.