THE RECRUIT
Simsbury’s Gavin Griffiths is one of New England’s top hoops prospects, and Uconn is among those in pursuit
A text message, sent from Gavin Griffiths to his father, Larry, helped cement the reality of where the Simsbury native’s basketball life has taken him.
“Do you remember who Danny Manning was?” Gavin asked.
Of course, Larry did. Manning was the 1988 national player of the year at Kansas, and Larry used to have a T-shirt with Manning and Shawn Elliot’s faces on it. Now Manning, an assistant coach at Maryland, is recruiting his son.
“It’s overwhelming,” Larry said. “It’s a whirlwind.” Gavin Griffiths, a 6-foot-7, 180-pound forward, is considered a four-star recruit in the class of 2023 by Rivals, and is still unranked by ESPN and 247. After playing his freshman season at Simsbury High, Griffiths enrolled at Kingswood-oxford in West Hartford, repeated his freshman year, played AAU basketball for NE6, then Team Spartans and now Boston-based Team Expressions Elite. In just three years, he’s grown from a lanky shooter to a high-flying, versatile wing with offers from Syracuse, Maryland, Iowa and Rutgers.
He visited Uconn on Thursday, met with the coaching staff and debated Michael Jordan vs. Lebron
James with head coach Dan Hurley — who, to the surprise of few, argued for Jordan.
Griffiths left Storrs with an offer.
“It’s always been a dream of mine where I could be in this position to go play at Uconn,” Griffiths said. “It’s really a blessing, and I’m really fortunate to be in this position.”
His father Larry was a two-time all-state center at Cheshire High in the 1980s, scored over 1,000 points at the University of Hartford and played professionally overseas. Gavin’s older brother Riley played basketball, among other sports, and his sister Nora plays at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury.
There’s some similarities between the father’s game and the son’s. Both like to play above the rim, but the glaring difference is that Larry played three years of high school ball before the advent of the 3-point line, and at 6-8, was more of a post player. Gavin, just an inch shorter, is a knockdown shooter who plays on the wing.
Still, the son has not beaten the father one-onone, though the two haven’t faced off in a year and a half. Larry, who still played regularly in the mornings, busted a knee on the court, and the two haven’t played since.
“At this point, I think I could score on him,” Larry Griffiths said. “But I don’t think I could stop him from doing whatever he wanted to do.”
Griffiths split time between varsity and junior varsity as a freshman at Simsbury, operating largely as a catch-and-shoot threat while learning fundamentals from coach Greg Stillman. He opted to repeat his freshman year and sought out prep schools. It was Hartford Healthcare CEO Jeff Flaks, whose son played travel ball against Griffiths growing up, who told Kingsood-oxford coach Brad Seaman that Griffiths was eyeing a jump to the prep level.
Seaman had trained Riley and Nora Griffiths, and knew of Gavin’s talent. He welcomed him to Kingswood-ofxord, but worried he’d initially struggle in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference with just half of a season of high school varsity experience under his belt. To top it off, the Wyverns opened the 2019-20 season against defending champion St. Lawrence, which sent players such as Michael Carter-williams and Bonzi Colson to the NBA.
“He went for 35 points,” Seaman said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, he didn’t need much of a learning curve.’ ”
Griffiths averaged 18.2 points as a freshman, 26.8 in five games as a sophomore and once drained 13 3-pointers in a game, but established himself as a legitimate high-major prospect this summer, with a versatile skill set that transcends shooting. With Expressions Elite at the Nike EYBL Peach Jam in Atlanta, one of the nation’s premier AAU tournaments, Griffiths was the ninth-leading scorer, averaging 16.2 points, seven rebounds and 2.8 assists. He hit 41.7 percent of his 3-pointers.
The unranked kid from Simsbury was no longer under the radar. Seaman said that players have shown interest in attending K-O just to play alongside him, and that he and interim athletic director Josh Balabuch have looked to build a roster that fits around Griffiths.
“He goes and works on his weaknesses,” Seaman said. “He goes and attacks it, then he adds it to his game ... his change of speed at the rim, body control, just drastic improvement over the past four month. He just continues to evolve. He has a scorer’s mentality, and then his ability to hit tough shots. He hits shots that continue to amaze me. He believes every shot is going in . ... I usually am not this optimistic. I am usually safe with my words of player development. To this day, I’ve never seen anyone with his drive.”
Seaman estimates Griffiths does four workouts a day — an hour of drills, then lifting, then open gym and then shoot-around. Larry Griffiths remembers a time when Gavin was a fifth grader, and after a poor performance on the court, put on a winter coat and practiced on an outdoor hoop in the snow.
The work isn’t done yet for Griffiths, who still has two seasons of high school basketball to play, and likely more scholarship offers to sort through. But to this point, it’s paid off.
“I’ve just had to be patient and work hard,” Griffiths said. “When I was at Simsbury, I obviously wasn’t in this position. I’ve just had to focus on my game and work hard.”