WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- Gavin Griffiths and his family were in a holding pattern.
It was late November and the elite 2023 prospect, attending his first Rutgers game in person at Jersey Mike’s Arena, just got a front-row view of the Scarlet Knights suffering a stunning upset to Lafayette. Inarguably the worst loss of head coach Steve Pikiell’s tenure, a defeat that hangs over a season and leaves a heavy feeling in a locker room, the Griffiths were unsure of what exactly to expect afterward.
They are no strangers to tough losses; father Larry and mother Karen both played collegiately at Hartford. They empathized with the distraught players as they stood in the postgame locker room. They would understand if Pikiell, who they hoped to spend some time with, was not in the mood to schmooze.
Those worries went away quickly once Pikiell approached them. They wound up spending a couple hours together, touring the program’s facilities and talking late into the night.
“I think he would have spent the whole night,” Larry Griffiths said. “He could not have been more gracious after that loss, which is about as brutal of a loss as you can get at that level. He just could not have been more classy and gracious with us. He told Gavin ‘you could make me the happiest coach in the world by coming here.’ It made a huge impression on us, his character of being able to handle something like that. It was obviously not a fun night for that team, but he bounced back from that and was just great with us.”
It was one of many moments throughout the Scarlet Knights’ recruitment of Griffiths, a 6-foot-7 forward who can shoot and score at an exceptional level, that left an impression. They culminated in a strong relationship with him and his family that led the 33rd-ranked player of the 2023 class to commit to Rutgers on Thursday, becoming Pikiell’s biggest recruiting coup yet and marking the latest jump in his building of the program.
Here’s another: when Pikiell originally extended Griffiths an offer in June of 2021 over the phone, he made sure his father was there as well. Pikiell gushed about Larry Griffiths’ playing career -- the two were star high school players in Connecticut around the same time; Pikiell graduating Bristol’s St. Paul in 1986 and Larry graduating from Cheshire in 1987 -- as much as he did about Gavin Griffths’ game.
That continued when the Griffiths made their first trek to campus later that year. Larry could not make the trip, but he was present when Gavin and his mother Karen entered Pikiell’s office. On the coach’s desk was a framed picture of the New Haven Register’s 1986 Class L All-State team: Griffiths standing in the back center, Pikiell kneeling in the bottom right.
It endeared every member of the family; Gavin thought it was “a cool thing to see,” Karen laughed when Pikiell jokingly insisted that he kept the framed picture there all the time, and Larry appreciated the gesture.
Pikiell and the Griffiths had many more things in common.
The seventh of Mary Faith and Joseph Pikiell’s nine children, he bonded with Gavin -- who has three siblings -- about growing up in a big family, sharing bunk beds and basketball hoops in central Connecticut.
The father of four children, including two daughters with Division I experience -- the oldest played basketball at Northwestern, the youngest is a freshman on the recently crowned national champion North Carolina women’s lacrosse team -- Pikiell bonded with Larry and Karen about the experience they were undergoing during Gavin’s recruitment.
“As a father of four, I know what a big deal it is getting your kid to college,” Pikiell told Larry on the phone call where he extended his son an offer. “Gavin won’t have to pay for college if he comes here.”
Pikiell later shared with them the first question he had for North Carolina’s coaching staff when he took his daughter on a visit to Chapel Hill: “Are you going to take care of my girl?” It resonated.
Pikiell did the heavy lifting in the recruiting process with gestures like these, but he got plenty of help from those around the program, much of which came during Griffiths’ official visit in early May.
In a trip to watch the women’s lacrosse program host the Big Ten Tournament championship game at SHI Stadium, the Griffiths met University President Jonathan Holloway and Athletic Director Pat Hobbs. The meeting stuck out for various reasons: the game itself was tangible proof of the upward trajectory of the entire Rutgers athletics, it showed Holloway’s intimate involvement with athletics and it was their first glimpse of how “impressive” and “fantastic” Hobbs was.
Assistant coach TJ Thompson, who was heavily involved in Griffiths’ recruitment, was “great, fantastic” during the visit. As were fellow assistants Brandin Knight and Karl Hobbs, Director of Basketball Operations Mike Larkin and Assistant Director of Academic Services Randi Larson, a “super star” and “firecracker” who blew the Griffiths’ away.
“(Coach Pikiell) is just a good person. The whole staff is full of good people,” Gavin Griffiths said. “When you go there, it’s one of the first thing you see.”
And there were the fans who recognized the Griffiths during their multiple trips to campus and insisted that Gavin had to come play for Pikiell. The way Rutgers fans revered Pikiell reminded Larry of his college coach Jack Phelan, who was recognized and loved by everyone in town during his stint as Hartford’s head coach.
“Every detail (of the official visit) was just perfect,” Larry Griffiths said.
So much so that Gavin contemplated committing to Rutgers on the spot. His father encouraged him to sleep on it, think it over, let it sink in. Gavin did that for a day, then another, and the feeling remained as strong as ever. He decided to cancel official visits he planned to take to Virginia Tech and Michigan; there was no place he could envision being better for him than Rutgers.
“All right,” his father said, “but you can’t do it over phone or text.”
Gavin hatched a plan: he would take a trip to campus and surprise Pikiell with the news. Karen Griffiths got in touch Hobbs to make sure everything was allowed and feasible.
Not only did they get the green light, they got an assist.
Hobbs, in the midst of filling the open head women’s basketball coach position, told Pikiell he wanted him in a meeting with a candidate. Then Griffiths walked into the room and surprised him with the good news.
“We had that type of relationship where I felt comfortable going in there unannounced,” Gavin Griffiths said. “His reaction was super excited. Very much how I expected. It says a lot about how he recruited me.”
“The look on their faces,” Larry Griffiths added, “was really, truly amazing.”
Griffiths made his pledge public weeks later, sending a surge through the Rutgers basketball fanbase that Pikiell reenergized throughout his first six seasons at the helm.
The Griffiths witnessed the latest season of that rise under Pikiell up close, getting a strong grasp on what makes the Scarlet Knights tick.
They accompanied the ride throughout the season, witnessing the lows of the Lafayette loss and highs of the regular-season-closing Penn State win in person. They watched the historic upset of then-No. 1 Purdue on television, “jumping up and down” when Harper’s half-court heave went through the net.
They love the aggressive defense they play, a toughness evident in the way Big Ten defensive player of the year Caleb McConnell and his teammates defend that Griffiths identifies with.
“It seems like it would be awful to set a screen against Rutgers,” Larry Griffiths said.
They love the development of players like McConnell, Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr., the foundation of back-to-back NCAA Tournament breakthroughs.
They love the energy of Jersey Mike’s Arena, consistent throughout each game they witnessed.
“I got to see it sold-out and not sold-out, and it was not much different,” Gavin Griffiths said. “It was rocking both times. It was probably 80% full at the Lafayette game but you couldn’t tell there was an empty seat. It was rocking and rolling the whole time.”
It all came together to create a program Gavin Griffiths wants to be a part of.
He wants to build upon the legacy that Baker, Harper and McConnell created, keep the momentum of the program going alongside Paul Mulcahy and Cliff Omoruyi, who are projected to be seniors during Griffiths’ freshman season.
He wants to play in Piscataway at a venue he loves in front of passionate fans who have been showing him love throughout his recruitment, especially in the past week as word that he was choosing Rutgers began to trickle out.
He wants to play for Steve Pikiell, a coach who created a strong relationship with him and his family, the man who texted him following his ceremony on Thursday with a full-circle message from their conversation following that devastating loss to Lafayette last November.
“I’m the happiest coach in the world,” Pikiell told Griffiths, and the feeling was mutual.
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.
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