TCU Basketball Lands Big-Time Scorer

TCU men’s basketball added a major scoring piece for the 2026-27 season, landing Long Beach State transfer Gavin Sykes after a breakout freshman year in the Big West.

Sykes, a 6-4 guard from Sacramento, California, gives the Horned Frogs a proven bucket-getter who didn’t need much time to make a national impression.

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He averaged 19.4 points per game last season, the sixth-best mark among freshmen across college basketball and second-best in the Big West Conference.

That production earned Sykes Big West Freshman of the Year honors and a spot on the league’s second team. It also put him in rare company nationally.

The only freshmen who averaged more points were AJ Dybantsa at BYU, Darius Acuff at Arkansas, Ebuka Okorie at Stanford, Cameron Boozer at Duke and Caleb Wilson at North Carolina.

Sykes wasn’t just piling up empty points, either. He shot 38.7 percent from 3-point range, made a team-high 105 free throws and repeatedly carried the Long Beach offense.

He scored at least 20 points 15 times and reached 30 points in four games.

His biggest night came against CSU Bakersfield, when he poured in a career-high 39 points.

That performance set Long Beach State’s freshman single-game scoring record. By season’s end, Sykes had scored 542 points, also the most ever by a freshman in program history.

He was also named a finalist for the Kyle Macy Award, which is presented to the nation’s top freshman.

Before college, Sykes was a three-star prospect by ESPN and ranked as the No. 23 player in California in the 2025 class.

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Now he joins Ryan Hunt, Trent Lincoln and Miloš Šojić as part of TCU’s incoming group.

For a Horned Frogs team looking to reload with immediate-impact talent, Sykes brings exactly that: scoring, confidence and a freshman season that already proved he can handle a big role.

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