Razorbacks prepare for 18-19 season with Gafford as focal point, 9 newcomers

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas star sophomore center Daniel Gafford celebrated his birthday on Monday, the men’s basketball team’s first official day of practice for the 2018-19 season.

The team held media day activities prior to practice.

“I’m 20 going on 30,” Gafford said. “I feel good. It’s going to be a good day. Good practice and everything.”

“I’m doing what I love, so it’s going to do nothing but make my day better,” Gafford added.

Gafford passed up a chance to be a one-anddone selection in the NBA Draft after he was named an All-Southeastern Conference Freshman last season. he averaged 11.8 points and 6.2 rebounds with 76 blocked shots in his first season in Fayetteville. He said he was motivated to return for another year of school and another year playing for coach Mike Anderson.

“What mainly motivated me is my mom and my dad,” Gafford said. “I basically had a long sit-down talk with them and they basically brought me back down to Earth. It was crazy as the process was going on. The decision I made

is one of the decisions I am basically proud of. It’s basically helping me become better as a player and as a person.”

The big man’s big freshman year puts big expectations upon him this season.

“Hopefully, he’s a guy that’s capable of getting you a double-double each and every night,” Anderson said. “Daniel had an extraordinary year. We saw that.”

And so did every coach on every team Arkansas plays this season. Many had not taken Gafford into account at this time last year when the Razorbacks counted on since graduated senior guards Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon, both on NBA rosters now, and Anton Beard. The roster also included now graduated forward Arlando Cook and post player Trey Thompson, who is now a member of Anderson’s staff as a student-assistant.

“Now you go from being a guy that was one of the guys that they didn’t really game plan for, to now they’re going to have to,” Anderson said Monday. “We saw going down the stretch (last season). People really targeted him. They doubled up on him. They made it real difficult, got real physical with him.

“So, one of his charges this summer was to get a little stronger, get a bigger base, get some more go-to moves. I think he’s had a really good summer. He went out to the Nike Academy and really, really played well.”

All the more reason for teams to build their game plans around stopping him.

“It’s going to be a different animal because now people are going to game plan,” Anderson said. “They’re going to come at you. They’re going to make you maybe be the guy that distributes things out. But I think we’ll still see Daniel continue to do the things he did.

“I thought he was one of those guys that could run the floor like a guard. He rebounded the basketball. Very active rebounding the basketball on offense and defense.”

Barford, Macon and Beard’s presence with Thompson as a big man complement certainly helped Gafford not be the Lone Ranger as he got established last season. Other than junior forward Adrio Bailey, sophomore reserve forward Gabe Osabuohien and junior walk-on guard Jonathan Holmes, it’s an all new cast with the 2017-18 seniors moved on and underclassman guards Darious Hall and C.J. Jones transferred to DePaul and Middle Tennessee State, respectively.

Newcomers abound with freshman guards Desi Sills, of Jonesboro; Isaiah Joe, of Fort Smith Northside; and Keyshawn Embery; sophomore junior college transfer guard Mason Jones; and freshman forwards Jordan Phillips; Reggie Chaney; Ibrahim Ali, of Maumelle; and Ethan Henderson, of Little Rock Parkview. Phillips is currently sidelined since having arthroscopic knee surgery.

One newcomer is not entirely new. Sophomore guard Jaylen Harris redshirted with Arkansas last season as a transfer from New Mexico.

“I’ve counted nine newcomers,” Anderson said. “But the beauty of it is we’ve got guys on campus since June and it’s given those guys the opportunities to get acclimated to the day to day task of going to class and also working out and trying to become better basketball players.

“I’m excited because on paper it was a good recruiting class; very heralded. But I’m always one of those guys that I don’t rush to judgment. The proof will be in the pudding. We’ll see what these guys can do on the floor.”

One that will not be on the floor is Khalil Garland, who signed as a freshman in 2017 also out of Parkview. He was not cleared to practice for medical reasons last season and was still not cleared when practice began Monday.

“Khalil recently went through a thorough battery of tests, and based on those results, he’s not been medically cleared to participate in practice right now,” Anderson said.