Recruiting on the South Plains | PG Josh Gray

RECRUITING ON THE SOUTH PLAINS Measurables JOSH GRAY Position: PG Ht: 6'1" | Wt: 175 lbs High School: Wheatley (Houston, TX) DTN Profile Video: Clip 1 Rivals | Scout ESPN 91 | 24/7 Sports N/R Cumulative Ranking: INC Offers Kansas St., Mississippi St., Oregon, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Texas Tech

This recruiting season has really been quite the turn-around. Last year, head coach Billy Gillispie honored the prior commitments from Pat Knight and brought on some JUCO players. None of the players, Knight's or Gillispie's were highly rated players or considered to be sniffing the top 150 players in the country.

This year things are different.

Per @RcsSports, Gray committed to Texas Tech yesterday afternoon (I've checked the timelines and I think that @RcsSports had it first) and Gray's commitment gives Texas Tech three top 150 players, two from this year in Gray and F Wannah Bail (link) and one from last year in F Aaron Ross (link). And I think this was the expectation when Gillispie was hired, that he was going to bring talent to Texas Tech in short order and he was going to try to put Texas Tech on the map as quickly as possible.

This is actually happening.

If you watch the embedded video below, you'll note that Gray acknowledges that he, at some time, was in some legal trouble. He was never charged or arrested from what I can tell. That may have scared off some programs. Gray originally committed and signed with Mississippi St. and when their head coach, Rick Stansbury, retired, Mississippi St. released him from his letter of intent. Since then, Gray was essentially down to two programs, Kansas St. and Texas Tech. Kansas St. is obviously the better program, it's not even close, but they're in a bit of turmoil as Frank Martin left for South Carolina. I don't really know what happened with Gray and Kansas St. as BOTC reported that Kansas St. didn't return Gray's phone calls, but RRS.com's Chris Level tweeted (I can't find the tweet) that Associate Head Coach Chris Walker is largely responsible for Gray being interested in Texas Tech. You could probably chalk Gray and Bail up to Walker's Houston-area influence.

Stats

I mentioned this a few weeks ago when it appeared that Gray may have been on the verge of a commitment that he had pretty fantastic stats for his Wheatley team:

23.8 PPG | 5.9 APG | 3.3 RPG | 2.9 SP

If you dig a little deeper, you'll see that Gray shot 59% from the field and 46% from the three-point line. This is not just a guy that's getting to the bucket and making everyone look silly. And just to clarify, 36% of Gray's shots were from beyond the three-point line.

More after the jump.

The Player Speaks

There's no article as of this morning. I'd guess that we'll get something later.

Scouting Report

Gray is ultra-quick and pretty much everything that you would want in a point guard. Just watch the video and you know that he has impressive handles, can dribble through traffic and makes it look easy. He's got more than enough height to get to the rim and he has more than enough athletic ability to finish at the rim with authority. I think I'm drooling. The fact that Gray averaged almost 6 assists a game also lets me know that although he's getting plenty of shots (he's really efficient, so why the heck not), he's also involving his teammates and setting them up. Gray has terrific court vision, plenty of no-look passes that make you think that Texas Tech hasn't had this sort of point guard, one that can score and pass, in a really long time.

Josh, welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!

The 2012 Class