Story by NU Athletic Communications
The Nebraska men’s basketball team added one of the top players in the 2023 recruiting class as Gavin Griffiths will join the Husker program for the 2024-25 season. Griffiths, a 6-foot-8, 193-pound guard from Simsbury, Conn., played at Rutgers last season and will have three seasons of eligibility remaining.
A top-50 recruit coming out of high school, Griffiths gives the Huskers size and shooting ability on the wing, as he was third among Big Ten freshmen in 3-pointers in 2023-24 according to CBB Reference.
Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg believes that Griffiths has the potential to flourish on the Husker roster.
“Gavin is an elite shooter with deep range,” Hoiberg said. “Spacing is so important in our system, and his skillset fits what we are looking for. He handles the ball well and possesses the length and athleticism to give us flexibility and positional size in our lineup. Gavin has a year of Big Ten experience under his belt, and you could see his confidence grow over the course of last season, especially in the last month when he shot 37 percent from 3-point range.”
Griffiths played in all 32 games for Rutgers, averaging 5.8 points and 2.2 rebounds per game while playing just under 18 minutes per contest during the 2023-24 campaign. He was second on the Scarlet Knights with 31 3-pointers, while ranking third on the team in blocked shots (13) while coming off the bench for a majority of the season. He closed the year playing his best basketball, averaging 11.3 points and 3,5 rebounds per game while shooting 38 percent from 3-point range over Rutgers’ final four contests. He had three double-figure efforts in that stretch, including 14 at Wisconsin, 10 at Nebraska and a team-high 16 in a start against Maryland in Big Ten Tournament. He finished with seven double-figure efforts as a true freshman, highlighted by a 25-point against Boston University. In that contest, he went 9-of-15 from the field, including 3-of-7 from 3-point range. He had nine games with multiple 3-pointers, including a season-high four against Wisconsin. He had at least three rebounds in each of Rutgers’ final seven games, including a season-high six caroms at No. 2 Purdue.
Griffiths was a consensus top-50 recruit in 2023 and was a four-star recruit by all four major recruiting services. He played at Kingswood-Oxford High School where he averaged 24.6 points and 12 rebounds per game as a senior. For his efforts, he was chosen as the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Player of the Year in Class B Basketball. He was the No. 2 player in the state of Connecticut as a senior by 24/7 Sports, ESPN.com and On3 in the class of 2023. He averaged 24.0 points, eight rebounds, and four assists during his junior season. He played on the AAU circuit with Expressions Elite and shot 40.6 percent from three-point range on 11.3 attempts per 40 minutes at the 2022 Nike EYBL Peach Jam.
He comes from a basketball family, as both his parents played college basketball at Hartford. His father, Larry, is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame after totaling 1,181 points and 694 rebounds during his career from 1987 to 1991, while his mother, Karen, played at Hartford from 1998 to 1992.