The Energizer Bunny

Grandy Glaze just keeps going and going…

by Tariq Sbiet / @Tsbiet

One non-negotiable aspect of basketball (or any sport) is effort. When a player steps foot on hardwood, he better come ready to play; unless of course that player prefers the much nicer view of the action from the pine. It seems that Brampton, Ontario native Grandy Glaze was born with this non-negotiable trait which he credits his mother for.

“My mom is a very intense woman, she gets hot! The thing about her is that when she’s doing something, she never gives a half hearted effort. I can even see it in her cooking; something as small as that, she’s putting her heart and soul into that dinner. She is seasoning it before hand and sprinkling a little bit of love on that,” he says humorously.

The UNLV-bound 6-6 forward began his high school basketball at St. Edmond Campion where the bears won two regional championships before Grandy took his game south of the border to Baltimore to play for St. John’s Prep. After two years at St. John’s, “the beast” migrated to Proctor Academy where he spent his junior year. Now, G2 will end his secondary hoops at Notre Dame Prep where alumni Michael Beasley and Paul Harris attended school.

“At Notre Dame Prep, it’s about academics and basketball, there are about 60 kids in the school and 30 of them are the boys and girls basketball team,” says Glaze. “ND is really going to prepare me for UNLV, we’re going to be training hard, two-a days, the season is fairly long and we’re going to a lot of big tournaments. Exposure wise, it’s probably going to be the best place for me and academically there is just absolutely, positively no distractions in that school. All you can do is get better.”

Grandy is a very unique player and distinguishes himself on the court quite easily. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing offense or defense, Glaze is a bouncing ball of energy as he goes all out every single time. He enjoys scrapping under the rim or hustling for loose balls. Witnessing him play, he looks like a kid in a candy store and could easily adopt the motto for the NBA, using him as a spokesperson for a commercial… “I love this game.”

“Everybody wants to shoot the three, look pretty for the ladies and not play defense but I wanna do that. I want to excel at being that garbage guy. I don’t have a problem with scoring 2 points and grabbing like 18 rebounds or like 5 steals,” he says.

Where did this mentality come from?

“Where I’m from, (Brampton, ON) where I started playing basketball everybody goes hard. We play in the winter time in snow, if it’s raining we’re playing in the rain, we just play and everybody goes hard. Go hard or go home,” he says. “You really can’t do anything in life with a half-hearted effort.”

Grandy is no hypocrite. He is all heart, which was what drew programs like Florida, South Florida, West Virginia and Iowa State to recruit the 2011 prospect.

But Glaze is far from done when it comes to improving his skills.

“Coach Kruger at UNLV wants me to be in attack mode at all times so my handle really needs to get polished up because he sees me as being a power three-man just going hard to the basket and exploding on dudes,” explains Glaze. “Working hard will always be my bread and butter but it won’t be enough as guys get bigger, stronger and faster.”

Tariq Sbiet is the Canadian Recruiting Analyst at Flagrantfouls.com. He can be reached via twitter @Tsbiet or at tariq.sbiet@gmail.com.