Big-man Gafford adjusting to outside

FAYETTEVILLE — Daniel Gafford didn’t take a threepoint shot last season among his 271 attempts from the field as a University of Arkansas freshman.

Dunks were more to Gafford’s liking. Of his 164 field goals, 74 were dunks.

But Gafford has been working on extending his shooting range.

“It’s always helpful to have a big man come out and be able to shoot threes,” said Gafford, a 6-11 forward. “And I want to be one of those big men. So I worked on my shooting all summer.”

Maybe he’ll even fire up a few three-pointers?

“Daniel has a nice touch for a guy his size,” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. “Maybe we’ll let him shoot a couple threes in the RedWhite

game and see what he’s capable of doing.”

Gafford, a preseason AllSEC first-team pick, will lead the Red team in the Razorbacks’ intrasquad game at 7 tonight in Walton Arena.

“It just depends on the way I’m feeling,” Gafford said of whether he’s likely to shoot some three-pointers tonight. “If I feel like I’m not going to be able to make one — or airball it or something — I’m not going to shoot threes. I’m going to scoot in some.

“But if I feel that I’m able to shoot threes and make them consistently, I might try a couple.”

Gafford is one of three returning Arkansas scholarship players along with junior forward Adrio Bailey and sophomore forward Gabe Osabuohien on a team with nine newcomers.

“It’ll give the fans a glimpse of some things to come,” Anderson said of the Red-White game. “Knowing it’s a young group and it’s going to get better.”

Gafford said it will be a competitive game for locker room bragging rights.

“We want to show the fans how hard we’ve been working,” Gafford said. “How fast we can get up and down the court. How crazy our defense is going to be this year.

“We want the fans to have as much energy as we do, because we can feed off them.”

Anderson said the newcomers are progressing.

“But any time you’ve got so many new faces, new pieces, there are days that look pretty decent and there are days when you go like, ‘Man, I thought we worked on this last week.”

“But I think the more I put on them, some of it is sticking. You’re seeing different guys step up and showcase each and every day what they’re capable of doing.”

Practices have been competitive, Anderson said, with so much playing time up for grabs after the loss of eight players from last season’s team.

“You know that in this game, everybody’s going to play,” Anderson said of tonight’s scrimmage. “But next week when we start playing exhibition games, I can only play so many guys.

“So they’re vying for those minutes, because I don’t have any starters right now.”

Anderson then paused and chuckled.

“I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I’m not the dumbest guy, either,” Anderson said. “I can pencil Daniel Gafford in as a starter.”

Gafford