Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

UNLV Basketball:

Desert Pines sophomore getting bigger in the recruiting world

Greg Floyd Jr., a 6-foot-7 guard, has scholarship offers from more than a dozen schools, including UNLV

Greg Floyd Jr.

Steve Marcus

Greg Floyd Jr., left, practices with the Las Vegas Knicks AAU team at Clark High School Tuesday, April 21, 2015. Floyd, a sophomore at Desert Pines High School, picked up a basketball scholarship offer this week from UNLV.

Basketball Prospect Greg Floyd Jr.

Greg Floyd Jr. shoots free throws during practice with the Las Vegas Knicks, an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, at Clark High School Tuesday, April 21, 2015.  Floyd, a sophomore at Desert Pines High School, picked up a basketball scholarship offer this week from UNLV.   .. Launch slideshow »

When you’re 6-foot-7 with the skillset of a guard, you won’t stay under the radar for long. Still, Desert Pines High sophomore Greg Floyd Jr. wasn’t quite expecting this.

“It’s a surprise,” Floyd said. “I knew coming into the live period that I’d have to work hard and put everything into my game.”

What he didn’t know has how quickly he would see the response from schools. In the past couple of weeks, Floyd has picked up more than a dozen scholarship offers, including UNLV, Auburn, USC and Virginia.

Most of the interest really picked up at the Pangos Spring Spectacular April 10-12 at various gyms around Las Vegas. That’s the first evaluation period that kicks off the spring and summer recruiting calendar, and no matter where Floyd’s Las Vegas Knicks team was playing there were a lot of collegiate polos sitting in the stands.

Floyd started his career at Clark High and played for the Las Vegas Prospects but last year he and his father, Greg Floyd Sr., felt a change was necessary, so Floyd Jr. transferred to Desert Pines. They also switched to the Las Vegas Knicks and coach Lamar Bigby, a former UNLV player who’s very excited about the overall talent on his 16U team.

Floyd’s class of 2017 teammate on both the Knicks and at Desert Pines, 6-5 wing Trevon Abdullah, has scholarship offers from half the Big Sky Conference plus Utah State, and there’s potential throughout the roster. But already the main attraction is Floyd, who will have more bleaches full of suitors in town this weekend as the Knicks participate in the Double Pump Spring Classic around the Valley.

“He can play all the guard spots and more importantly he’s so long he can defend any position,” Bigby said.

Floyd has always been tall for his age, he said, but his first coaches allowed him to play on the outside and develop some ball-handling skills. That development track, as opposed to putting the tallest players in the paint to post-up over and over, is becoming more common and it helps create a highly valued versatility.

When he grabs rebounds, Floyd is encouraged to lead fast breaks on his own and though improved depth will make it less of a necessity, Floyd has played some point guard for the Knicks. His shot is good, though Floyd pointed to that as one of the major things he’s working to improve. But at this stage it’s more about what skills to develop, along with the physical tools and what they already know they can do.

UNLV assistant coach Todd Simon was at Desert Pines on Wednesday to watch Floyd play against teammates. During Knicks practice that night at Clark High, Bigby received a call from the coaching staff at Michigan inquiring about Floyd. Now that the floodgates have opened Floyd is going to get more attention, not less.

“My goal this summer is to just work hard and show the coaches I can do something,” Floyd said.

Oh, they already know.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

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