Cowboys Find Sharpshooting Guard

University of Wyoming head basketball coach Larry Shyatt announced Tuesday that Jerron Granberry has signed a scholarship offer and will transfer to UW from the University of North Florida. Granberry will graduate from UNF on Friday with a bachelor’s degree in communication and, under NCAA rules, have one year of eligibility with the Cowboys while he pursues a master’s degree.

“Jerron is an individual the Shyatt family has followed for close to four years,” Shyatt said. “I’ve had the chance to follow his basketball career at UNF since Jeremy [Shyatt] was there two years ago under my former assistant Matthew Driscoll, including seeing him compete and practice. Jerron’s story means a lot more to me personally because of the loss of his father and that rang true with all of our staff. We know Jerron can help the Wyoming basketball program, but we also hope we can help him and his family through a tough time.”

Granberry comes to the Cowboys after a stand-out career for Driscoll, who just completed his fourth season at the helm for the Ospreys. Driscoll was an assistant at Wyoming under Shyatt during the 1997-98 season. A 6-5, 225-pound guard, Granberry started the first five games of the 2012-13 season, before he was excused from the team to be with his family following the death of his father.

“Jerron is capable of playing all the perimeter positions, but also guarding all three of those spots on defense as well,” Shyatt said. “He’s shown through his career that he is a consistent and solid three-point shooter, but his greatest attribute on the court is his toughness and competitiveness.”

Granberry missed just one game his first three seasons in the program, as he crafted an impressive stat sheet at UNF. In 101 starts, he averaged 10.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting 36 percent from the field and 35 percent beyond the arc. During his junior season in 2011-12 he became the sixth player in UNF history and first in the NCAA Division I era to reach the 1,000-point mark. Granberry is the school’s all-time leader in three-point makes (213) and three-point attempts (579), while his 1,071 career points are fifth and his 101 starts are fourth on UNF’s career lists. He was named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference Preseason Team before the 2012-13 campaign and to the conference’s All-Tournament Team in 2010-11.

During the 2011-12 season, Granberry ranked second on the team in scoring at 10.9 points, as he posted 17 double-digit performances that included 25 points and 6-of-6 beyond the arc against Stetson. Granberry missed just one game during his junior season with an ankle sprain.

Granberry’s sophomore campaign saw him pace the team at 12.0 points per game and 23 double-figure scoring games, which included four with 20 or more. He notched a career-best 28 points in a triple-overtime victory over Kennesaw State, as he drilled a pair of game-tying threes late in the contest. He notched nine points, four assists and three rebounds in UNF’s 76-60 win over Wyoming on Nov. 18, 2010, in Laramie. Current UW assistant coach Jeremy Shyatt was an assistant with the Ospreys at the time. He was named tournament MVP of the Cancun Challenge and earned Atlantic Sun Player of the Week once during the season.

An immediate contributor, Granberry started all 31 games as a freshman in 2009-10 and led the Ospreys in scoring at 9.0 points per game. He was also the team’s top three-point shooter at 37 percent and ranked third on the team in rebounds at 3.3 per game. He recorded 14 games in double-digit points.

Granberry played his prep career at Coral Reef High School in Miami, Fla., where he was a teammate of current UW player Charles Hankerson Jr. As a senior, Granberry averaged 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists to help lead Coral Reef to its first-ever state title and earn second-team all-state honors. He paced the team in field goal percentage (52 percent), rebounds and was second in assists. A four-year varsity member, he helped Coral Reef improve from four wins as a freshman to 14 as a sophomore, 20 as a junior and 27 as a senior.

The son of LaFreida and Leslie Granberry, Jerron (pronounced JUR-ron) has three brothers, Lance, Davin and Leslie Jr., and two sisters, Kim and LaTorri. Davin lettered for the University of Central Florida basketball team from 1997-2000.