Last Saturday, the Fordham men’s basketball team announced their fifth freshmen of the 2022 recruiting class, signing Hargrave Military Academy’s Elijah Gray. During his senior year, Gray averaged 17.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks on 58% shooting.

Gray had offers from the following schools: Appalachian State, Charlotte University, Cleveland State, East Carolina University, Elon University, Old Dominion College, South Carolina Upstate, University of Tulsa, Boston College, Ole Miss, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Virginia Tech. 

Gray is now the fifth true freshman to join the Fordham Rams recruiting class alongside Will Richardson, Angel Montas, Romad Dean and Noah Best. 

During Gray’s recruiting process, he also had Big 10 and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) schools going after his services. But Gray ultimately chose Fordham over the much larger schools, citing, “these schools are looking around in the portal and are acting late on high school players so I decided to go where the love is.” (via Zagsblog).

Gray will look to unite with current Rams Abdou Tsimbila, Patrick Kelly, Rostyslav Novitskyi, Khalid Moore and fellow freshman Dean in the bigman rotation.

A talented player, Gray will provide another interior presence for the Rams as a rebounder and defender. Though he will fill out as the season progresses, Gray’s physical tools give him an advantage over most, standing a 6’8” with a 7’ wingspan. 

Gray also provides some shooting, hitting his threes at a 38% clip this past season. Stretch forwards are always matchup nightmares for opposing teams, and this element will only help Fordham’s run and gun offense this upcoming year.

Gray’s coach at Hargrave Military Academy, Tom Messinger, acknowledged his talent all while discussing his recruiting process.

“He has a legitimate chance to be the next NBA player out of Hargrave with his size and skillset. Coach Urgo and Coach [Dave] Paulsen did a phenomenal job on his official visit and he ended up canceling other visits with another high kid major and a Power 5 school to commit to Fordham right away.” (via Zagsblog).

Once again, Keith Urgo and his staff exceeded all recruiting expectations and have officially put together the most talented recruiting class Fordham has seen in almost ten years. New assistant coach Dave Paulsen has already made his first contribution to the program and is assisting Urgo’s transition into the head coaching position.

The Rams will look to improve on their 16-16 season last year, while maintaining most of their core group and only losing a few key players. An exciting future lies on the horizon for Gray and the Rams.