Henley's career upswing comes to GCU

Jaden Henley has been a starter in the Big Ten, Big East and Mountain West conferences and has yet to see the support that he signed up to get next season at Grand Canyon.

In turn, the Lopes are getting a player who can support their winning ways in a 6-foot-7 guard who has shown exemplary improvement and expansion in his game over three seasons.

Jaden Henley

Henley is coming off a career-best season in his junior year at UNLV, a member of the Mountain West that GCU will join by 2026 and as early as next season. Born in Baldwin Park, California, and raised in Ontario, California, Henley averaged 12.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game (all career highs) for an 18-15 Runnin' Rebels team.

"Jaden is a really talented player," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "He is coming off a tremendous season where he showed his great playmaking ability."

Injury-riddled UNLV put Henley at point guard at times, and he was the Mountain West Player of the Week on March 3 as he finished the season averaging 37.2 minutes over UNLV's final six games.

Henley previously played at Minnesota and DePaul, giving him 68 starts in 91 games over his three-year career..

"For me personally, GCU was the perfect spot when Coach Drew and the staff called mainly just because of the fit it had, the environment and kind of all the support it gets," Henley said. "I really like that part of it. I haven't been part of program that gets this much support before. I really wanted to be part of it. You walk around campus, and you can just see the support."

Henley finished the season with a 19-point, five-steal, five-rebound, three-assist performance while playing all of UNLV's WAC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Utah State. The Runnin' Rebels finished the season with six healthy rotation players.

Henley's scoring has bumped annually from 5.3 points per game as a Minnesota freshman to 8.6 with DePaul to 12.5 this season, including 14.8 in away and neutral-site games.

"I've seen many GCU games," Henley said. "It's promoted as The Biggest Party in College Basketball. You gravitate to that type of thing and the love. Everybody wants to be part of that playing basketball. The all-around love that GCU has from the students and outside as well. is different. It's one of the kind."

Jaden Henley and dad — **Henley and his father, Brian**

Henley improved his 3-point shooting from 27% in 2023-24 to 35% last season and also has shown large increases each year in free throw shooting (63.3% to 75.5% to 86.4%).

That helped Henley's scoring last season because his aggressive drives translated to 4.5 points per game on free throws.

"Growing up, that's just kind of something I've always had a knack for," Henley said. "I've been getting downhill, making plays, being aggressive and attacking the rim. As I got older, I just developed the pace with it. I developed my jump shot and it's made me another threat, to where people have to play me straight up. That's opened up the rest of the floor for myself."

Henley said he improved his jump shot, pull-up shots and pick-and-roll reads last season. While he nearly doubled his steals average to 1.6 (fifth in Mountain West), he knows about the defensive reputation Drew created for GCU basketball to reach four NCAA tournaments in five years.

"Coach Drew feels like he can get me better defensively, and I love that part of it," Henley said. "I think you win games playing defense. That's how you get to March Madness. He knows what he's doing, and I know he's going to put the plan in place for us."

Henley joins 6-foot-2 guard Brian Moore Jr., who won the Lou Henson Award at Norfolk State, as GCU's first official additions from the transfer portal. Each guard brings the versatility of playmaking skills in addition to scoring.

GCU 7-foot-1 center Dennis Evans, who redshirted last season in Phoenix, played with or against Henley for most of their youth club basketball years.

"The biggest thing just letting everybody know that GCU is on the rise and that we're building something that many people are probably going to look past," Henley said. "This is serious. We want to make a really big run in March Madness. That's what I talked to Coach Drew about. I want to be a part of it, and I think other people should too."

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dennis Evans

Jaden Henley

Brian Moore Jr.

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