CHENEY, Wash. — Former Eastern Washington University men's basketball star Tanner Groves signed a free agent deal with the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, as reported by several outlets late last week. Groves played for EWU from 2018-21, highlighted by his Big Sky Conference MVP honor in 2020-21.
A Shadle High graduate out of Spokane, Wash., Groves redshirted the 2017-18 season before joining the Eagles' regular rotation as a redshirt freshman in 2018-19. His breakout campaign was in 2020-21, when he earned conference MVP honors after averaging 17.2 points, 8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.1 blocks. The Eagles went 16-8 overall (12-3 in conference), winning the Big Sky Tournament for a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they narrowly lost to 3-seed Kansas, 93-84. Groves had 35 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in the defeat, garnering national attention.
In addition to regular season conference MVP recognition, Groves was named to the all-conference first team, Big Sky Tournament MVP, NABC All-District Team and three times to the conference all-academic team.
He, along with brother Jacob, transferred to Oklahoma in 2021, where he finished out his NCAA career, playing and starting 66 games over two years for the Sooners, averaging over 10 points and 5 rebounds in both seasons. Groves finished his collegiate tenure shooting 35.2 percent from 3-point range while making 53.3 percent of his field goals overall.
Details of the contract with the Thunder have not been released but Groves is expected to join the team's summer league roster. The Thunder are set to play summer league games from July 3-17 at Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
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Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.
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