Top Freshman, Sykes, Sign with TCU
4/23/2026 5:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Long Beach guard averaged 19.4 points last season
FORT WORTH – TCU men's basketball landed the top freshman in the Big West Conference last season in Gavin Sykes.
Sykes, a 6-4 guard from Sacramento, Calif., was the Big West Freshman of the Year last season for Long Beach State.
Sykes had arguably the best season in Long Beach State history after averaging 19.4 points per game which ranked sixth among freshmen in the country. It was also the second-most in the Big West Conference, where he earned second team all-conference honors. Sykes shot 38.7 percent from three and made a team-best 105 free throws.
Sykes scored 20 or more points in a game 15 times and reached 30 points four times, including a career-high 39 points against CSU Bakersfield, which broke the LBSU record for most points in a game by a freshman. His 542 points broke the season record for points by a freshman. Sykes was a Kyle Macy Award finalist, which is given to the nation's top freshman. The only freshmen nationally who averaged more points than Sykes were AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Darius Acuff (Arkansas), Ebuka Okorie (Stanford), Cameron Boozer (Duke) and Caleb Wilson (North Carolina).
He was a three-star rated recruit by ESPN and the No. 23 prospect in the state of California out of the 2025 class.
Sykes will join recent signees Ryan Hunt, Trent Lincoln and Miloš Šojić as newcomers for the upcoming 2026-27 season.
