Springfield Lands New NBA Development League Team

Springfield was just informed that they will now be the home of a new NBA Development League team. Add the recent addition of a team in Maine - and New England is picking up steam in the race to help more athletes try to reach their dream of one day playing in the NBA. For the full story visit MASS LIVE for the story that appeared in the Republican newspaper.

Draft Express Ranks Gaffney #29 at PF

The Draft Express website recently ranked 6'8" UMass power forward Tony Gaffney as the 29th best player at the power forward position for the upcoming NBA draft. Tony who is projected to play at the 3 or 4 position, has been working diligently following his Sr. campaign at UMass. Most recently, Tony spent time working on his game and conditioning at the prestigious IMG Academy pre-draft camp in Bradenton, Florida. The Academy is well known for working with the best athletes who are trying to make the jump to the next level. Bud and Jessica Gaffney brought to my attention that the website also has a blog - and they posted a great story regarding Tony and his family. This is a must read - click here for the full story.

Tony Gaffney Rated Top 75 Player

Tony Gaffney has been rated the 72nd best player for the upcoming 2009 NBA Draft by an independent blog. Click here for the complete top 100 list. The list includes some of the top European players as well as top college players like Tony. This blog also has additional comments on Tony's game over the course of the year, that I thought were pretty detailed, see here. For this particular post, scroll down to the third player - Tony - then continue down to a November 18th post that has some great comments on the Memphis/Umass game.

Check out this photo of Tony (from MassLive.com) getting ready to dunk over a Saint Joseph's player

Tony Gaffney Rated #7 by CollegeHoops.net

UMass MVP and NBA Pre-Draft Invitee, Tony Gaffney is rated as the 7th best player from the center position by CollegeHoops.net Here is how the site rated players at his position (both U.S. and International players). Thanks to Bud Gaffney who spotted this listing for me.

Center
1) Hasheem Thabeet - C - UCONN
2) BJ Mullens - C - Ohio State
3) Vitor Faverini - PF/C - Malaga
4) Luke Nevill - C - Utah
5) Vyacheslav Kravtsov - C - Zalgiris Kaunas
5) John Bryant - C - Santa Clara
6) Gasper Vidmar - C - Fenerbahce
7) Tony Gaffney - C - UMASS

Tony is also rated #62 overall in this years Sr. class by Draft Express.

Game 3 at the Portsmouth Invitational

Tony Gaffney and his teammates won their third and final game, 92-70 at the Portsmouth Invitational Pre-Draft camp. Looks like Tony had all pistons firing for this game, scoring 11 points on 5/8 shooting and pulling down 7 rebounds. Tony's teammate and fellow A-10 colleague, Jimmy Baron out of URI, hit for 33 points, setting a record for most 3-pt FG with 9.

Tony's stat line:
Minutes: 25
Points: 11
FG: 5/8
3-pt FG: 0/1
TO: 1
Asst: 1
Reb: 7 (3 Off, 4 Def)
Blk: 0

All-Tournament Team

DeMarre Carroll, Missouri *
A.J. Abrams, Texas
Alade Aminu, Georgia Tech
Jimmy Baron, Rhode Island
Jon Brockman, Washington
Paul Delaney III, UAB
Wes Matthews, Marquette
B.J. Raymond, Xavier
Alex Ruoff, WVU
Garret Siler, Augusta State
Jermaine Taylor, Central Florida
A.D. Vassallo, Virginia Tech
Gary Wilkinson, Utah State

* Denotes MVP

Gaffney Gets Rave Review at P.I.T by Draft Express

Check out this great review by Matt Kalmasky of Draft Express on Tony Gaffney:

Tony Gaffney, 6’8, Power Forward, Massachusetts. 4 Points, 4 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 2-6 FG, 2 Blocks, 1 Steal by Matt Kamalsky, Draft Express.

Though Gaffney didn’t put up a terribly productive stat line today, he displayed some very interesting tools. Mostly known in college for his tremendous defensive presence and effort level, Gaffney wasn’t asked to do much scoring for UMass, making the most of the touches he earned coming from his hustle and ability to run the floor. While he has played well defensively in both of the games he’s played in, he showed some offensive promise that his collegiate role didn’t give him the opportunity to showcase. Looking beyond the box score, we came away intrigued with what we saw today. A very athletic forward with a slender frame, Gaffney exploited his excellent quickness on a couple of occasions today, beating his defender off the dribble on three memorable occasions. Not usually prone to putting the ball on the floor, his ability to get to the rim was quite impressive. Once in the lane, Gaffney used quick fakes to get his man off balance before spinning over his left shoulder for hook shots. Considering his length and quickness, it is safe to say that Gaffney has a lot of potential if he continues to diversify his offensive game. On the defensive end, Gaffney has shown great versatility, looking capable when defending the post and the perimeter. Though he will need to continue to add weight to his frame to be a better interior defender moving forward, he shows the timing, awareness, and effort level to be very effective in this setting.

Game 2 at Pre-Draft Camp in Virginia.

Here are the stats for Tony Gaffney in his second game (a 70-68 win) at the Portsmouth Invitational Pre-Draft Camp in Virginia:

Tony's stat line:
Minutes played: 29
FG: 2/6
FT: 0/0
Points: 4
Blocks: 2
Assts: 1
Stls: 1
TO: 0
REB: 4 (1 Off. - 3 Def.)

Next game is Sat at 2 PM

NBA Pre-Draft Camp in Orlando Cancelled

This article is taken straight from the Orlando Sentinal.com

It was back in November that word first leaked out that the NBA was ending the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp's three-year run in favor of a more NFL Scouting Combine format in Chicago. Commissioner David Stern's reason for moving away from the weeklong competition-heavy setup was hard to argue with: What was originally set up to be a showcase of the best talent had basically turned into a series of pickup games among mostly fringe NBA prospects. Last season's camp produced only two players (George Hill and J.R. Giddens) drafted in the first round, while 17 went in the second round. Of those selected in the second round, only a handful avoided being shipped straight to the D-League. Click HERE for full story.

Game 1 at Portsmouth Invitational NBA Pre-Draft Camp

Here is the stat line in Tony's Gaffney's first game (70-63 loss) at the Portsmouth Invitational down in Virgnia:

Tony's stat line:
28 minutes played
2-7 FG
0-2 FT
4 points
8 rebounds (2 Off, 6 Def.)
2 assists
1 steal
1 turn-over
0 blks.


Also, here are comments from the NBA pre-draft camp from the Draft Express website.

Gaffney Named MVP for UMass

The awards just keep coming in for Mr. Gaffney. Tony was named MVP and Defensive POY for 2008-2009 season at the recent UMass basketball team banquet. For a full report click HERE.

Gaffney and Lowe Invited to NBA's Pre-Draft Camp

Some big news out of UMass - Tony Gaffney and Chris Lowe invited to NBA's Portsmouth Invitational Tournament pre-draft camp. See full story here.

2009 National Leaders: Pomeroy Rankings

See Pomeroy Ratings - This is a fantastic site if your looking for college basketball D1 statistics. You can break it down on a National level or specific conference - in this case Atlantic 10. Tony appears in two top 60 rankings for D1 NCAA

D1 Defensive Rebounding Percentage
Rank
#58 Tony Gaffney, Massachusetts 22.9 %

2009 National Leaders: Block Percentage
Rank
#13 Tony Gaffney, Massachusetts 10.52 %

Gaffney Named to All-America Defensive Team

UMass Sr. Tony Gaffney has been named to the 2009 College Insider All-America Defensive Team

Gaffney Projected as a 2nd Round Draft Pick in NBA

UMass forward Tony Gaffney is listed on the Draft Review website as their 58th pick in their 2009 NBA Mock Draft.

Gaffney Completes Spectacular Senior Season

UMass SR. 6'8" power forward Tony Gaffney put the finishing touches on his final season by earning Defensive Player of the Year Award for the A-10.