AMHERST, Mass. – Derek Kellogg felt it was what a Senior Night should be. Although this season hasn’t been what the UMass faithful had surely hoped for, the Minutemen closed out their home slate with a win over George Washington thanks to a big second half, and with the seniors leading the way.
The three seniors can be summed up in brief with a couple of notes. Each has been in the program for a different length of time, as Chris Lowe is the only four-year player in the group, while Luke Bonner played three years and Tony Gaffney played two years. Lowe and Gaffney’s contributions can be easily shown with numbers, while Bonner’s can’t.
But there’s more to all of it than just that short summary.
On Wednesday, Lowe thought about what he has become. A product of powerful Mount Vernon High School, Lowe had a reputation as a defensive specialist coming in, but the jury was out on whether or not he was an Atlantic 10-level point guard. His early growing pains added to that perception, as the point guard spot looked like an open question at times his freshman year. Travis Ford eventually had to ride or die with him, and he came on in the latter half of the season and had several big games.
Lowe improved more as a sophomore and a junior, at times looking like one of the best point guards in the country. He had a 2.2 assist/turnover ratio and had no small part in the Minutemen reaching the NIT championship game. Twice during the NIT, he reached double figures in assists en route to a nearly 3:1 assist/turnover ratio. That set expectations high for this season despite a coaching change; Kellogg said early on he expected a great deal our of Lowe.
Early on, Lowe struggled, especially in their second game of the season. He had no assists and a career-high 10 turnovers, just the third time in his career he didn’t have an assist in a game. In two of the next three games, he again had more turnovers than assists. After some of their early losses, he was quite self-effacing, feeling that as a senior and as the point guard, a lot of responsibility falls on him. With one game to go in the regular season, Lowe has posted double digits in assists eight times on the season. He will close his career as the all-time leader in assists at UMass and is one of seven players in Atlantic 10 history to have 1,000 career points and 600 career assists.
And through all the growing pains, Lowe also reflected on the players who took the floor with him.
“I’m just happy that I had these players around me and the coaching staff around me to get me through college, because it’s not as easy as people think it is,” he reflected.
Gaffney started his college career at Boston University and appeared to have plenty of potential. Arguably, he was a steal for the Terriers, an athletic forward with good offensive skills but a body that wasn’t mature yet. He showed flashes of that potential, including a 20-point effort as a sophomore, but it wasn’t a good situation and he got suspended once. After his sophomore year, Gaffney left, and it wasn’t clear what was next.
“When I was at Boston University, I doubted whether I was even going to play Division I college basketball again,” Gaffney said.
Eventually, he transferred to UMass and paid his own way during his year in residence. His potential was a given, but now he was transferring up after showing just flashes of what he could do.
As a junior, Gaffney didn’t play much right away, but was a big factor late in the season. He became the team’s “energy guy”, giving them a boost off the bench and especially at the defensive end. Around the halfway point of the season, he started six straight games, and wound up second on the team in blocked shots. That set the stage for a big senior season.
Gaffney has been the most consistent Minuteman all season. From the get-go, his motor has been running and he’s done everything he can to help this team win. Kellogg has raved endlessly about the way he never stops working, and he has the numbers to reflect it. After not posting a double-double in his first three years, he averages a double-double and is the fifth player since 1996-97 to post 100 blocks and 50 steals in a season. He nearly had triple-doubles in consecutive games in December, coming up two blocks shy against Holy Cross and a block shy against Boston College.
A fan favorite and the youngest in a family of kids who played Division I basketball, Bonner started his career at West Virginia. There, he played just 92 minutes in 22 games as part of a team that made it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. While he and Gaffney would play off each other to a degree on the court, you can see them doing it even better off the court. In the post-game press conference, Bonner, who maintained a blog at the athletic department Web site, showed his touch with a random quote, while Gaffney would add in the one-liner a couple of times to give the media another good laugh.
Bonner’s numbers this season are modest (7.3 points, 5.4 rebounds per game), but his impact has not been. He missed seven games early on due to injury, and the Minutemen lost the first five. When he returned, they got a presence they had been missing, especially as this team didn’t have a lot of bodies up front.
“When he has a presence, we’re a pretty good basketball team,” Kellogg said.
All three have enjoyed the experience at UMass. Gaffney was quite thankful for it considering where he was before, while Bonner came to like the area. None of the three wanted to leave this behind on a losing note, with Gaffney joking that, “They’d have to bring some ambulances in for us, because I wasn’t leaving without a win.” But when it came to looking forward, much like on the court, they weren’t doing that.
“Our who lives, our dream is to play Division I college basketball,” Gaffney said. “It always has been that – it’s never been anything more than that, it’s never been anything less than that. To see it coming to an end is surreal.”
Based on that, it’s fair to say that they have lived the dream.
