New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Looking for a point Gaffney announces his plans to transfer
It appears the UConn men’s basketball team’s search for point guards for next season has hit overdrive.
Jalen Gaffney, who just completed his junior season at UConn, is planning to transfer. The news, first reported by The Day of
New London, comes a day after freshman point guard Rahsool Diggins also announced he would be leaving the Huskies for the transfer portal.
At a season wrap-up media gathering on Tuesday afternoon at the Werth Family Champions Center, head coach Dan Hurley noted that the team would be looking for skilled perimeter players (a scoring point guard, along with another skilled player ready to start right away). With Gaffney now leaving, the need for a point guard is even more exacerbated.
After a promising freshman season and an up-anddown sophomore campaign, Gaffney really struggled this past season. Serving primarily as R.J. Cole’s back-up at point but often also sharing the court with Cole, he scored in double figures in the Huskies’ first three games against lowmajors but never really got going after that. By the end of the season, Gaffney hardly played at all, logging a total of 16 minutes in UConn’s final three games. He didn’t score a point in any of those games.
Gaffney wound up averaging just 4.0 points per game and shooting just 34.6 percent from the floor and 29.5 percent from 3-point range. In Big East play, Gaffney averaged just 2.3 points per game, shooting 30 percent from the floor and 20 percent from 3.
Hurley seemed to believe Gaffney would return for his senior season in a backup point guard role. Hurley talked on Tuesday about how Gaffney and his roommate Akok Akok, who also saw his minutes and production drastically decrease this season, had plenty to prove.
“They’re both at crossroads here in terms of how