Shortly after landing in the NCAA transfer portal last week, Illinois wing Alan Griffin became a hot commodity. According to Evan Daniels of 247 Sports, there are some updates in his recruitment, too. Griffin has narrowed his of schools to six programs. This new list includes two ACC teams: Miami and Syracuse. (Duke is no longer in the mix.)
In less than 19 minutes per game this season, Griffin averaged 8.9 points and 4.5 rebounds. Arizona, Texas, Iowa State and Dayton are the other four teams with Griffin’s attention.
The appeal of Griffin is obvious; he’s a low-mistake player on offensive that can score efficiently from multiple levels of the floor. As a sophomore, Griffin shot 41.6 percent on his 3-point attempts (113 3PA). He also shot 60 percent on 2-point attempts and 86.1 percent from the line. He finished the season with a true shooting rate north of 64 percent.
There isn’t a team in the country that couldn’t use a floor-spacer like Griffin. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he has some rebounding upside, too. During Big Ten play, Griffin ranked top 15 in the conference in both offensive and defensive rebounding rates, per KenPom.
Griffin is set to sit out the 2020-21 season with a redshirt — unless he receives some sort of waiver. Regardless, the 6-foot-5 small forward has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
As far as fit goes, Miami’s spread pick-and-roll attack needs guys to draw help away from its ball screen exchanges. Even if Griffin would miss the opportunity to play with Chris Lykes, there’s a chance he could help create room to work for younger guards, like Isaiah Wong and Harlond Beverly.
Over 42 percent of Syracuse’s field goal attempts this season were 3-pointers — a top 70 number nationally. More than 62 percent of Griffin’s career field goal attempts in college have come from beyond the arc. As the Orange look to find low-usage spot-up weapons to place around Joe Girard and Buddy Boeheim, Griffin seems like an easy fit.