Gaffney Quietly Leads UMass into NIT Quarterfinals
AMHERST, Mass. – Saturday’s second round win for UMass was a game the Minutemen had to gut out. The game wasn’t played at their pace, and even when they did some of what they wanted to, they struggled to score. The Minutmen trailed by 12 with 8:36 left to play, rallying to win with a 19-2 run that gave them the lead for good.
So it’s fitting that after the game, the players had a lot to say about a guy who scored four points and had six rebounds in the game. That wasn’t the most impressive stat line, but it belonged to a player they won’t have the rest of the way, junior Tony Gaffney.
“Tony was what got us going, he was the difference,” said head coach Travis Ford.
That wasn’t the only reason he was a subject of the post-game press conference. With 2:38 left in the game, Gaffney went down and grabbed his knee, clearly in a lot of pain. It was a classic sign of a torn ACL, but according to a source, the injury is not as severe. Even so, Gaffney is likely done for the season with so little time left regardless of how far the Minutemen advance.
Gaffney has been reborn this year in the role of energy guy off the bench. The Boston University transfer has always had all the potential but never the consistency. Now, he’s in a specific role and has thrived, able to use his length and athleticism to help when the Minutemen press and at the defensive end. He’s second on the team in blocked shots and third in rebounding and steals, and he’s been the difference in a few games this season.
“Tony is like the X-factor on our team,” said junior guard Chris Lowe, who scored 17 points.
On Saturday, Gaffney picked up Akron’s star post scorer, Jeremiah Wood, later in the second half. Wood was having his way inside, using every fundamental in the book en route to a game-high 25 points and six rebounds, going 9-17 from the field. He was 6-10 in the second half and helped the Zips build the 12-point lead they ultimately surrendered.
Gaffney was among those who tried, and at first glance he might not appear to have a great chance because Wood is stronger. But he held his ground, and the Minutemen also did well to thwart attempts to get the ball in to Wood, and he never scored the rest of the way. He missed his only field goal attempt and had two turnovers in that stretch.
“When he was playing (Jeremiah) Wood, he stayed on the ground, because if you noticed, Wood was smaller than most of our players, and when he would throw a pump fake, our guys were quick to jump and he drew fouls,” noted Ricky Harris, who scored a team-high 20 points. “Tony caught on to that real quick and he knew how to defend it. Then he made big steals for us so we could get out on the break and run.”
Harris is Gaffney’s roommate and sees the energy he has. He said Gaffney is a night owl, yet still has all the energy in the world the next day, and it’s something that spreads to the rest of the team.
“He’s like the glue guy on our team, he keeps us going,” said Harris. “He’s the spark off the bench, he has more energy than anyone on our team including the coaching staff.”
Further proof of his energy and desire to be part of this team came after the injury. Gaffney wanted to be with his teammates so badly that he hobbled out of the locker room before the game was over.
UMass heads to Syracuse for the quarterfinals on Tuesday. The Minutemen beat the Orange at the Carrier Dome earlier this year, setting a record for the most points by an opposing team in that game. The Orange are a different team now, being more experienced but also without another key player as Eric Devendorf was with them at that time. The Minutemen will try to rally around their injured player in seeking a repeat.
“If he’s injured, we’ve got to keep rolling, because we know if he was here with us, he’d be fighting with us,” said Harris.
