Vanderbilt basketball has its first commitment in the 2027 class, and it comes with real shooting juice. Four-star guard Declan Griffiths has pledged to the Commodores, according to a report from Joe Tipton.
Griffiths brings the kind of size-and-shoot profile that can stretch a defense in a hurry. He’s listed at 6-foot-7, ranks as a four-star prospect and a top-50 player in the 2027 high school class, per Rivals, and he showed Vanderbilt enough over the weekend to choose the Commodores after also visiting Boston College and Butler. He had other offers on the table too, including Providence and Ole Miss.
The fit is easy to see. Vanderbilt is getting a player known first and foremost for his jumper, and one who already carries serious gravity as a shotmaker.
The plan in Nashville will be to build out the rest of Griffiths’ game, but the shot is the calling card. Mark Byington is likely to put him in motion and keep him working off pindowns and flairs to maximize what he does best.
There’s more to his game than just catch-and-shoot work. Griffiths has shown some pop attacking closeouts and finishing straight-line drives to the basket. Still, he isn’t expected to spend much time creating his own offense, and with Vanderbilt’s young group of playmaking guards, that may not be a major ask.
“Griffiths is a shooting specialist on the wing with good positional size,” 247 Sports analyst Adam Finklestein wrote in his evaluation. “He’s averaging almost 3 made threes per game, and taking nearly 80% of his total shots from behind the arc. We’re already seeing he’s the type of shooter that can be leveraged in a playbook, as his team runs him off various types of screening actions, but specifically flairs, where he seems to be especially comfortable.”
For Vanderbilt, Griffiths is the first 2027 commit, but he may not be the last big-name target in the mix. The Commodores are pushing hard for blue-chip wing Malachi Jordan and appear to be battling Kansas for him.
Byington has already helped raise the level of recruit Vanderbilt has been able to bring in. The recent run includes five-star wing Gabe Nesmith, following three top-100 high school players in the class of 2026. That kind of momentum is exactly what he said he believed could happen when he took the job.
“Vanderbilt is committed, and they want to be successful. And that matches my vision,” Byington said at his introductory press conference. “It’s a great league, and we’re going to find players who aren’t scared of a challenge.”
Griffiths fits that mold.
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