How Rutgers basketball landed Gavin Griffiths, prized class of 2023 recruit

Earlier this year, when Connecticut high school basketball standout Gavin Griffiths and his mother Karen visited Rutgers, Scarlet Knights head coach Steve Pikiell had something special to show them in his office.

It was a framed page of the New Haven Register newspaper from 1986 featuring a photo of the Connecticut all-state basketball team. Pikiell, a guard at St. Paul, was in the frame. So was Gavin’s father Larry, a forward at Cheshire.

“I don’t think he has it in his office all the time,” Larry Griffiths said, “but he broke it out for that.”

Their high schools were 20 miles apart, they both wound up playing collegiately in their home state — Pikiell for UConn, Griffiths for Hartford — and three-and-half decades later their paths have intersected again. On Thursday Gavin, a star forward at Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, committed to play college ball for Pikiell at Rutgers.

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Rated at four stars and with a composite ranking of No. 33 in the class of 2023, Gavin is the highest-rated recruit to commit to Rutgers during Pikiell’s six years at the helm. The last time a prospect in that rankings neighborhood pledged to Rutgers was Kadeem Jack in 2010.  

Ratings can be tricky — previous four-star Rutgers pledges Mamadou Doucoure and Jaden Jones rode the bench before leaving, and Jack never fulfilled his potential — but the Griffiths’ backstory suggests a strong fit for both sides.

“The first time we saw Rutgers play I could tell he would be a great fit here,” Larry Griffiths said. “As a (former) player I watched Caleb McConnell and Paul Mulcahy defend guys around screens and thought, ‘Oh man, it must be terrible setting screens against those guys.’ He’s got that kind of toughness, and he saw the way those guys played and said, ‘I can fit in with that.’”

It must be in the blood.

‘We were blown away’

After high school, Larry Griffiths excelled at Hartford as a 6-foot-8 forward. He averaged 10.8 points and 6.0 rebounds over four years there, shooting 52 percent from the field. His Hawks faced UConn and Pikiell four times over four years, losing all four games but playing them down to the wire in 1987.

After college Larry played professionally in Turkey, Holland and Finland before returning to the states for a career in computer programming.

From a distance, he followed Pikiell’s coaching rise from UConn assistant to program architect at Stony Brook, which was conference rivals with Hartford. At Rutgers, he noticed “the foundation he built with Geo Baker, Ron Harper and Caleb McConnell — guys he developed a ton” after they had few high-major offers coming out of high school.

“Look at what they accomplished,” Larry said.

Even though he wasn’t in touch with Pikiell through the years, it felt a bit like old times when Rutgers started recruiting Gavin, a 6-foot-7 wing whose versatility and shooting touch made him a prime prospect. Michigan, Iowa, UConn and Syracuse were among the high-major programs in pursuit.

The first time Pikiell met Gavin, the first thing he did was rave about Larry’s game.

“It’s always great for your son to hear that from other people,” Larry said.

When they reconnected, Larry and Pikiell hit it off, and not just because of their history. They’re both fathers of four, and both understand parenting high-level athletes (one of Pikiell’s daughters played hoops at Northwestern; the other is a member of the North Carolina lacrosse team that just won the NCAA title). Pikiell, who is one of nine siblings, talked about his entire youth spent sleeping in bunk beds — something Gavin does as well.

“He really made the connection with us,” Larry said.

It wasn’t just Pikiell. Rutgers assistant coach T.J. Thompson also was deeply involved in Gavin’s recruitment. Thompson knows New England well, having founded the New Hampshire AAU program that produced Baker. Baker looks at Thompson as a father figure, and Thompson told the Griffiths he would love for “Gavin to step into that spot” as his protégé, Larry said.

In the end, Larry said, “we were blown away by everyone we met at Rutgers.”

Three things to know

Here are three things to know about Gavin Griffiths:

1. He has dominated his high school competition.

This past winter he was named New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Player of the Year in Class B after averaging 24 points, eight rebounds and four assists per game. And his motor is high; earlier this year he fractured his nose by taking an elbow to the face.

2. He’s attended one high school.

Pikiell is a fan of continuity and often points out when a recruit has spent all of his time at one school (like incoming point guard Derek Simpson of South Jersey’s Lenape High). Griffiths is 17 years old, and his father said the plan is for him to finish out his senior year at Kingswood Oxford in 2022-23.

3. He gets RU's 2023 class off to a flying start.

It’s hard to say how many open scholarships Rutgers will have for 2023-24 — two more at the moment, though that will certainly change — but Griffiths will arrive at a position of need and projects to make an immediate impact. It’s worth noting that he is friends with Class of 2023 four-star center Papa Kante of South Kent (Conn.), who is being recruited by Michigan, Maryland and Seton Hall, among others.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.