After three years loaded with program records falling and historic seasons, third-years JJ Gray and Brady Groves will be taking their talents to Long Beach State University and Columbia University, respectively, this upcoming fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Gray\u2019s time with the Crimson and Gold, he was a three-time second-team North Coast Athletic Conference selection. Standing at 6\u20197\u201d, Gray averaged 15.4 points per game in his career and surpassed 1,000 career points in three seasons, becoming the 28th player in program history to reach four-digit career scoring and just the third to do so in three years.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s Basketball Head Coach Shiva Senthil first saw Gray play in Section 7, a major West Coast high school basketball tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stood out as a really, really talented kid,\u201d Senthil said. \u201cHe\u2019s always been a big guard \u2026 and we thought he had a chance to be a special player at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senthil was the first coach to reach out to Gray in the summer following his junior year; he was a part of Senthil\u2019s first recruiting class.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we got to know [Gray] through the process, we learned how good a person he was,\u201d Senthil continued. \u201cWhen we got [him] here, we realized he was going to be a game-changer, a perfect prospect for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The year before Gray arrived, the program went 8\u201318.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so appreciative [that he] took a chance on a program,\u201d Senthil said. \u201cHe could have [gone] to places that already had a winning track record, but he really valued the relationships we had with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Gray\u2019s three years with the Yeomen, the program was 40\u201338.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gray is graduating in three years with a degree in Economics. After arriving in his freshman fall with dual enrollment credits from high school, Gray and his roommate, Dut Lual, realized toward the end of their freshman year that they would have enough credits to graduate early. Knowing since high school that he wanted to pursue a master\u2019s degree in financial analytics, this allowed Gray to further his education while exploring basketball at higher levels by taking his fourth year of NCAA eligibility elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the transfer portal, Gray heard from almost 30 schools. The NCAC Newcomer of the Year and District Seven Rookie of the Year in the 2023\u201324 season was fielding offers from Division I, Division II, Division III, and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a super stressful time,\u201d Gray recalled. \u201cI was getting calls during class. It was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hailing from Fountain Valley, CA, and attending Fountain Valley High School, Gray had his sights set on returning home to play DI basketball at the University of California, Irvine. After getting into the school academically, the coaching staff informed him that they would only be recruiting centers in the transfer portal. Shortly after, he received a call from an unknown number.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a roller coaster of emotions,\u201d Gray said after learning UCI would not recruit him. \u201cI was in the computer lab running a data regression for my seminar. I\u2019m already frazzled \u2026 I\u2019m down in the dumps. It was literally 30 minutes after \u2014 I got a call, and it was Long Beach. So I was all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Beach was not on Gray\u2019s radar until his former middle school coach reached out. Jacob Eyman, the director of player relations at Long Beach, was a former professional player overseas in Australia and Albania and was Gray\u2019s trainer when he stood no taller than 5\u20195\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny how that connection [worked],\u201d Gray continued. \u201cI guess you never really know who you\u2019re connecting with.\u201d<\/p>\n
And although Gray\u2019s time on the court at Oberlin has come to an end, the relationships he formed are only just beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 50 years, when I look back at Oberlin, it sounds clich\u00e9, but I\u2019m going to be most thankful for the friendships I made here,\u201d Gray said. \u201cWe have guys from Greece, Montenegro, [and] Ukraine \u2026 I know so much more about other countries and other cultures now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lual, his classmate and close friend, is from South Sudan.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t read a book and actually know what Dut went through,\u201d Gray continued. \u201cHim being my best friend for three years, I can\u2019t get that anywhere else. In that aspect, that\u2019s what I\u2019m most grateful for. I could not have asked for a better college.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Groves\u2019 three years with the Yeomen, he was a one-time all-NCAC selection \u2013 and a likely selection this year based on his production. The right fielder ripped seven triples in 2024 to set the single-season triples record; his .346 career batting average sits tied for fifth (minimum 250 at-bats) in program history, and his 29 career doubles rank sixth all-time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baseball Head Coach Johnathan Ray saw Groves in-person for the first time at a high academic camp in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing that really jumped out was the athleticism,\u201d Ray recalled. \u201cHe\u2019s always been \u2026 a dynamic athlete. Watching him run around the outfield and [watching him] take swings is what [I was] initially interested in. Whether he was facing a plus high school arm or just an average one, you could tell he had that competitiveness that really separates guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Groves\u2019 freshman year, he slashed .382\/.573\/.426 and recorded 60 hits \u2014 the fifth most in a single season in program history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had an unbelievable first year where he really didn\u2019t face too much adversity,\u201d Ray continued. \u201cI think the biggest part of his game that he\u2019s grown has been the mental side. And over his last two years, teams have adjusted to him. Teams have made him a priority. For him, it\u2019s been big [to be] able to mentally understand how to get [to] his pitches, how to get his swings off, and [growing] from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Groves credits his success at Oberlin to having access to the facilities Oberlin offered at anytime and finding a close-knit group of teammates to work with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot having just the set time that you can practice, [but also] being able to go in at any time from noon to midnight was huge,\u201d Groves said. \u201cI really appreciated the small group work that we did on top of regular practice. That helped a lot [with] skill development and being around a group of guys who wanted to be the best they could.\u201d<\/p>\n
The year before Groves arrived, the baseball team finished 11\u201324. This past season, the Yeomen finished 18\u201319\u20132, recording their most wins since 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feels like a special thing for me because it feels like I have actually made an impact in something,\u201d Groves continued. \u201cI feel like being a part of [Coach Ray\u2019s] first recruiting class \u2026 making an impact to where we could have fun and be good [was meaningful].\u201d<\/p>\n
And while admission into Columbia through the 3-2 Engineering Program is nearly guaranteed, upon receiving his acceptance academically, Groves still had to earn a spot on the roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ray had met Canyon Kyle, the director of player development and camps at Columbia, at a plethora of prior recruiting events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Coach Ray] put me in touch with [Kyle], and once I got into the school, I had a phone call with him, and he put me in contact with the head coach,\u201d Groves said.<\/p>\n
This upcoming season, Groves will be fulfilling a goal he set for himself in high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last three years have been very special,\u201d Groves said. \u201cBut in my junior year of high school, the goal was to play baseball at a really good academic [DI] school. Fulfilling that dream is very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Groves will be lacing them up for the Lions this upcoming season, Oberlin will always be home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made lifelong friendships here, and I have great relationships with the coaching staff,\u201d Groves said. \u201cI truly care about people on the team. I\u2019ll be keeping track of stats and watching videos. [Although] I won\u2019t physically be there, I\u2019m trying to still be a big fan of everybody on the team next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After three years loaded with program records falling and historic seasons, third-years JJ Gray and Brady Groves will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-307243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}