Jacob Gilyard (born July 14, 1998) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA), on a two-way contract with the Memphis Hustle of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the Richmond Spiders. Gilyard is the all-time NCAA career steals leader, breaking the previous record of 385 on December 5, 2021, and finishing his career with 466 steals.

High school career

Gilyard played basketball for

The Barstow School The Barstow School, formerly called Miss Barstow’s School, is a secular, coeducational, independent school, independent university preparatory school, preparatory school in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, USA. It was co-founded in 1884 by ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

under the coaching of former

(NBA) player Billy Thomas. As a sophomore, he helped win the Missouri Class 3 state championship, his program's first state title since 1995, after scoring 16 points in a 61–46 win over Strafford High School. On December 5, 2016, during his senior season, Gilyard scored a school-record 50 points in an 85–47 victory over Washington High School. He finished the season averaging 33.2 points and seven assists per game, was named Class 3 Player of the Year and won the DiRenna Award as the top player in the Kansas City area. A three-star

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, Gilyard committed to play collegiately for

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

on September 12, 2016. He did not receive any offers from

Power Five The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate ...

programs.

College career

On December 10, 2017, Gilyard scored a freshman season-high 23 points with five three-pointers in a 74–71 win over

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

. He made the game-winning three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left. On February 28, 2018, Gilyard recorded 13 points, six assists and three steals in a 90–65 win over

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

, surpassing

Kenny Atkinson Kenneth Neil Atkinson (born June 2, 1967) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who serves as assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was previously the head coach o ...

's school freshman assist record and becoming the first

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

freshman to reach 80 steals since

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

's Marcus Smart in 2013. He closed the season with 89 steals, breaking the program record previously held by Anthony Dobbins. As a freshman, Gilyard averaged 11.4 points, 4.1 assists and 2.8 steals per game, which ranked sixth in the country, and started in all 32 games. In the third game of his sophomore season, on November 16, 2018, Gilyard scored a season-high 31 points, 27 of which came in the second half, and recorded six assists in a 78–70 victory over IUPUI. On February 11, 2019, he was named

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

Player of the Week for his first time after averaging 22.5 points, 5.5 assists and five steals per game in wins over George Mason and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

. Gilyard averaged 16.2 points, 5.2 assists and 2.8 steals per game as a sophomore, earning second-team All-Atlantic 10 and Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team honors. He joined

Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson (; born June 7, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iver ...

and Jason Kidd as the only Division I players since 1992 to record at least 868 points, 290 assists and 177 steals by the end of their sophomore seasons. On November 18, 2019, Gilyard was recognized as Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Week after averaging 22.0 points, 5.5 assists and four steals per game in victories over Vanderbilt and Cal State Northridge. On December 9, he was again named conference Co-Player of the Week after averaging 16.5 points, 8.5 assists, six rebounds and five steals in wins over Hampton and South Alabama. Against Hampton, Gilyard registered his first double-double, with 18 points and a season-high 10 assists, and scored his 1,000th career point. On January 25, 2020, he scored a season-high 29 points in an 87–79 loss to seventh-ranked

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

. As a junior, Gilyard was named Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Atlantic 10 after averaging 12.7 points, 5.7 assists, a Division I-high 3.2 steals and 3.1 rebounds per game. Following the season Gilyard declared for the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

. On May 21, Gilyard announced he was withdrawing from the draft and returning for his senior season at Richmond. Gilyard took advantage of the NCAA offer of an extra year of eligibility due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on college athletics, choosing to return for a fifth year. He was named to the Third Team All-Atlantic 10 as well as the All-Defensive Team.

Professional career

Memphis Hustle (2022–2023)

Gilyard went undrafted in the

2022 NBA draft The 2022 NBA draft (branded as the 2022 NBA Draft presented by State Farm for sponsorship reasons), the 76th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on June 23, 2022, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The ...

. On September 23, 2022, he signed with the Memphis Grizzlies of the

(NBA). On November 4, Gilyard was named to the opening night roster for the Memphis Hustle.

Memphis Grizzlies (2023–present)

On April 8, 2023, Gilyard signed a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. Gilyard made his NBA debut on April 9, 2023 in a 115–100 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He recorded three points, seven assists, four rebounds, and three steals.

Career statistics

NBA

, - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Memphis , 1 , , 0 , , 41.0 , , .333 , , .333 , , — , , 4.0 , , 7.0 , , 3.0 , , .0 , , 3.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 1 , , 0 , , 41.0 , , .333 , , .333 , , — , , 4.0 , , 7.0 , , 3.0 , , .0 , , 3.0

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 32 , , 36.4 , , .452 , , .384 , , .836 , , 2.2 , , 4.1 , , 2.8 , , .0 , , 11.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 31 , , 37.3 , , .472 , , .363 , , .771 , , 2.9 , , 5.2 , , 2.8 , , .0 , , 16.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 31 , , 36.6 , , .468 , , .367 , , .802 , , 3.1 , , 5.7 , , 3.2 , , .2 , , 12.7 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 23 , , 23 , , 37.7 , , .410 , , .336 , , .842 , , 3.0 , , 5.0 , , 3.6 , , .0 , , 12.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 37 , , 37 , , 38.5 , , .395 , , .360 , , .860 , , 3.5 , , 5.4 , , 2.9 , , .2 , , 13.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 154 , , 154 , , 37.3 , , .439 , , .362 , , .820 , , 2.9 , , 5.1 , , 3.0 , , .1 , , 13.2

Personal life

Gilyard's father, Rodney, played basketball for

Ottawa University Ottawa University (OU) is a private Baptist university with its main campus in Ottawa, Kansas, a second residential campus in Surprise, Arizona, and adult campuses in the Kansas City, Phoenix and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. It was founded in ...

at the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) level and left as the program's all-time leader in assists and steals. Rodney is a member of the school's Athletics Hall of Fame.

References

External links

Richmond Spiders bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilyard, Jacob 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Kansas City, Missouri Memphis Grizzlies players Memphis Hustle players Point guards Richmond Spiders men's basketball players Undrafted National Basketball Association players