Following a breakout campaign at Bedford Academy in Brooklyn PSAL this past season, re-classed 2026 6-foot-5 guard Rob Phelps Jr.(The Knox School, NY ‘26) has now garnered an offer from Monmouth University.
A stealthy, slithery, hard-attacking guard with prodigious vertical leaping ability, Phelps will spend a postgraduate season at The Knox School in Long Island. A crafty, left-handed scoring threat with the ability to spread the floor out with long-range shooting and also turn in dazzling finishes in traffic, Phelps Jr. has improved by leaps and bounds these past several months.
The killer instinct and knack for taking over games are another category in which Phelps Jr. is beginning to blossom. He's able to operate as a primary ball handler, engineering the souped-up tempo his father, former Providence star and Bedford head coach Rob Phelps, is known for emphasizing with an iron fist.
The long, lanky Phelps Jr. has evolved into a menacing two-way threat. He's been a consistent double-double threat offensively while sitting down on smaller guards and using his length to guard nearly every position at this level. Phelps Jr. possesses good concepts of the game, as he's a willing passer with a game-predicated awareness.
Weathered as a veteran, Phelps Jr. knows when to make the right read and locate cutters. The high IQ southpaw quickly levitates, gaining significant elevation on his shot. The Queens native has become a pull-up extraordinaire while capitalizing on a lost art in today's NCAA climate with his mid-range efficiency.
With his deft perimeter touch and ability to fire shots from near NBA 3-point territory, Phelps' uniqueness and all-around game have come together at the right time.
Playing for Knox School head coach Jared Grasso, who has nurtured the development of a torrent of Division 1 talent during his time as the Associate Head Coach at Iona and later the head coach at Bryant University, Phelps should have considerable offensive freedom. He also has a head honcho shouldering a high order commitment to readying for the rigors of the next level.
Phelps Jr. turned in multiple games of 20+ points and 10 rebounds or more during his last two seasons at Bedford, with his coaching staff and others urging him to relish the "dog mentality" and seize the leadership reins. Monmouth is coached by King Rice, the former North Carolina guard who has sustained tremendous ties to the New York City basketball market and local region. Monmouth piled together a 13-20 record in 2024-25, fifth in the CAA.
Rice is widely recognized for revitalizing the once ailing program at Monmouth, helping propel the Hawks to multiple Titanic upsets during the 2015-16 season. This Monmouth team took the college hoops world by wildfire, generating national headlines and a rapid uptick in national media coverage.
Phelps Jr., who boasts a high academic pedigree, is buoyed by a rarefied feel for the game. This enables him to impact nearly every connotation of the stat sheet. With the separation he creates via his smooth jumper, without requiring a lot of dribbling, the issue he poses for defenders is evident. He uses his length in melting passing lanes and at times banging bodies in the post, grappling for 50-50 balls.
When you consider the newly minted Knox School prospect and his vastly improved, springboard bouncy above the rim finishing, Phelps Jr. has the immeasurable intangibles to author a significant one-year stay at Knox School.
