Gaffney was awesome vs Zona glad to see him do well. Always that he was a great team guy who just got recruited over as is to be expected with a program on the rise
As a guy who wishes nothing but the best for every young man who comes through our program, whether they stay here throughout their time in college or not, I agree that it is great to see Gaffney find some success at FAU. He had a really good game against Arizona, and he was a part of their Cinderella run to the Final 4 last year, which I also loved as an alum of their graduate business school.
That having been said... calling him a "great team guy who just got recruited over" is a factually incorrect view of Jalen's time at UConn. The truth is he was a 4* recruit who at one time in high school was as highly ranked as James Bouknight and came in only slightly below JB. Once here he rarely if ever performed up to that ranking, and by the end of his 3 years here was playing so poorly that Hurley had him basically nailed to the end of the bench. The regression from sophomore to junior year was as significant as it was mystifying.
And the play that summarized Gaffney's time here best for me was that misguided "hero ball" play at the end of the Michigan State game at The Battle 4 Atlantis in 2021 where he eschewed running a play and instead dribbled around for 13 seconds before heaving a 3-point shot from well behind the arc with 3.7 seconds left. Air ball. A totally stupid, selfish play... and it sealed the loss.
Sorry, but a hard NO on the he was a "great team guy" thing. The real truth is that Gaffney transferring out and opening up a spot that eventually became Tristen Newton is the best thing that Jalen Gaffney ever did for our basketball program. That was his greatest contribution to our National Title #5.
