Gafford lottery pick
LOL
I wouldn’t go as far as to laugh at Dan yet.
I remember when we shut down Griffin from OKla & he didn’t look like a lottery pick that night either.
We didn’t win1 SEC game that year I don’t think.
I thank God that Gafford stayed at home to wear the Razorback uniform unlike several highly rated in-state players before him, but today’s performance is what he can expect to face during much of the SEC schedule and without another true big to spell him from time to time he may get worn down physically which is what I think happened today.
Unfortunately, with so much of the inside game resting upon his shoulders and surrounded by a cast of very talented, but young players he may suffer a bit with his NBA lottery draft status.
The bright side to that is that perhaps he does fall outside the Lottery and comes back for a third season in which all of these talented guys will e seasoned and much better next season.
If he stays as a lottery pick, he should move on and if he slips then it’s a win/win situation for both he and the team because next season we should be even better and his fortunes may rise even higher in the draft order.
Go Hogs!
That was not a nice post about one of the best big man talent we have ever had. It is as if you were waiting on Gafford to not look good.
Last I saw he had fallen to 13 (highest I saw listed) to 21 (lowest I saw listed) range
I didn’t care much for Dudley’s title of his article either. Basically the only difference between Gafford’s play and Bassey’s play was Bassey got to shoot 5 more free throws. Gafford was 3-3 and Bassey was 7-8. That’s the exact difference between their point totals (21 vs 17). Both players had 7 FG and 9 boards. “Bassey Bests Gafford” as a headline makes it sound like he was head and shoulders better when it was actually a very even match.
How about “Western KY beats Hogs by one in a classic battle of bigs”.
That dude abused Daniel in this game all the way around…And that flop that Daniel did at the end was just bad bad bad…that’s not on coach A that’s on Daniel…he should have stayed on his feet and just played defense but Dan tried to put the game in the referees hands and that’s not good…Dan is a superb athlete and he can play in the league today if he chooses but if his statement is true about wanting to have a career in the NBA then him staying past this season will only help
The battle between Gafford and Bassey wasn’t close as the stats preceive…Bassey hit all most all his free throws which was huge and he scored on post moves regularly without even being affected by Daniel’s defense killing him with the pump fake or Daniel just jumping too early and Bassey dunking or passing out of the flop or double team…To me Bassey, tonight, looked more like an NBA “career” guy than Daniel
Couple of things.
That’s not my headline. It was written by somebody else. You can always see what my suggested headline with by the title of the link, which was something like Western Kentucky hands Arkansas a rare home loss.
The other is I thought that story was fair to both big men and both teams.
Bassey has an inside game with inside moves I was hoping to see more of that this yr from Gafford but haven’t he still can’t use his left hand and never pumps and pivots like Bassey already can… you can see why he was a Mcdonalds AA…I like Gafford’s passion a lot but still not a guy we can count to want the ball everytime and then be able to finish…
The reason they won was because Massey wanted the ball and didn’t finish. I think there were times yesterday that Dan tried to finish and shouldn’t have, should’ve kicked back out. But he’s still a young basketball player (in terms of experience). I would almost be willing to bet Massey actually has more experience than Gafford in actual games played (total, not just college)
Thanks DD.
For what it’s worth I have had a problem with who ever writes the headlines. They don’t seem to have a clue about sports events or they have not watched the games. Bassey seems to be more skilled than Dan. But that is not a knock on Dan just real life. It should be a driver not a deterrent.
I wrote the headline for that story. Had Gafford made the last shot it would have said “Gafford beats Bassey in battle of big men.” Simple as that. Trust me, I did not think the headline would make people mad, nor is that what I am ever trying to do.
As far as headlines, those are written by any number of people from our staff, other online editors within our company and workers at the newspaper.
IDK about the experience. Bassey moved here from Nigeria at the age of 14 (same place as Olajuwon - Lagos, Nigeria).
2 very talented big men. Bassey has the advantage in strength, post moves and overall offensive game. Gafford is longer and maybe more impactful defensively (though Bassey had 4 blocks).
Both are going to make a lot of money next year.
Absolutely agree with you
“Abuse” is an overstatement of what I saw out there. It wasn’t like Bassey was dunking over Gafford or spinning around him with post moves one-on-one to score. I saw none of that.
Did Bassey have a better game than Gafford, yes. Did he look more NBA ready than Gafford at this time? Yes, I will give you that. Most of that has to Gafford’s physical maturity in weight and muscle. No question, another year in college will level the playing field.
But if I was a NBA scout, I see a higher ceiling in Gafford than Bassey. Do you?
Dudley, I owe you an apology. I didn’t realize you didn’t write your headline. And, you are right, the article didn’t have the tone of what the title implied. My bad.
No big deal.
Common misconception.
Editors approve or change suggested headlines.
Most of the time they change them for the better.
So, it was more about Bassey representing WKU and Gafford representing Arkansas and not about an individual player beating an individual player.