Jacob Grandison
Jacob Grandison (born April 2, 1998) is an American college basketball player for the Illinois Fighting Illini of the Big Ten Conference. High school career. Grandison began his high school career playing for Berkeley High School. Grandison started his career at Berkeley on junior varsity, but he was elevated to the varsity team for his junior year. Despite this, he did not see much playing time and did not play at all his senior year. Because of this, Grandison decided to do a post-grad year at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire for the 2016-17  season. Grandison was named Third-team Class A All-New England Honors and led the Exonians to a NEPSAC Class A championship, where he scored 20 points in the final and was named MVP of the tournament. Because of his success at Phillips Exeter, Grandison was offered his only Division-I scholarship to play for Holy Cross, where he ended up committing. College career. Grandison began his college career at Holy Cross, where he played in all 31 games and started 18 games his freshman year. During his first year, he averaged 9.0 points a game and led his team  in scoring six times and rebounding nine times. As a sophomore, Grandison started in all 33 games. He led the team in scoring with an average of 13.9 points per game, which was 11th in the Patriot League, and was second on the team in recounting with 5.0 rebounds per game. Along with this, Grandison shot 36.5 percent from three with a team high of 69 three-pointers, which was eighth in the Patriot league. Some individual highlights for the season included scoring a double-double of 21 points and a career-high 10 assists against Stony Brook on November  16, 2018, a career-high of 25 points against [Iona Gaels men's basketball|Iona] on December 30, 2018, and a double-double of 22 points and a career-high 16 rebounds against Lafayette on March 5th, 2019. After two years at Holy Cross, Grandison transferred to Illinois After sitting out the 2019-20 season because of NCAA transfer rules, Grandison started his Illinois career as a bench player. However, after Illinois suffered consecutive losses to 2020–21 Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team and Ohio State, Coach Brad Underwood decided to shake up his lineup and put Grandison in the starting  lineup for their game against Penn State on January 19, 2020. This proved to be a successful change as Illinois beat the Nittany Lions 79-65, and Grandison started the final 15 of 16 games of the season. With Grandison in the lineup, Illinois moved from 22 to 2 in the AP Poll and won the 2021 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament. For the entire season, Grandison averaged 4.6 points and 3.4 rebounds a game. For his senior season, Grandison saw a more increased role as he started in 23 of the 30 games he played. On February 19 , 2022, Grandison had his most points as an Illini with 24 points and tied a career-high in three pointers made in a game with six as he helped lead his team to a win against Michigan State 79-74. However, on March 3, 2022, Grandison sustained a shoulder injury against Penn State, which caused him to miss the last game of the regular season and the Big Ten Tournament and limited his playing time in the NCAA Tournament. Despite this, he averaged 9.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, which was fourth on the team for both, and earned  an Academic All-Big Ten selection. National team career. Through his mother, Grandison has dual-citizenship with Finland. Because of this, Grandison represented the Finland men's national basketball team in their summer training camp and their Olympic preparatory national team matches in 2021 Personal life. Grandison grew up in Oakland, CA. He competitively swam growing up and competed in the 50 freestyle at the Junior Olympics. He graduated with his bachelor's degree in earth, society, and environmental sustainability in 2021 and is currently enrolled in a master's degree program in management.