FAYETTEVILLE — Everybody in the basketball world knows what Arkansas sophomore Daniel Gafford brings to the table, but the likely-lottery pick also needs some help inside at times.
Gafford scored 21 points in Arkansas' 78-60 win over Texas-Arlington on Friday, but he was complemented by 14 points from Adrio Bailey and career highs of eight points and eight rebounds from freshman Reggie Chaney.
“Reggie comes out and almost gets a double-double off the bench,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “He is an exciting player. He has some highlight plays out there and some almost highlight plays.”
Chaney (6-8, 222 pounds) has played in place of and alongside Gafford each game this season.
“The transition has been a little bit of a struggle just going against guys who are like you,” Chaney said. “Every day going against him (Gafford), that gets me better. The thing that he has taught me since I have been here is just to work hard. He works hard every day, brings it every day. Some days I might not have a good practice, but he just keeps telling me to work hard.
“That’s something I try to take away from it and just get in the gym. I think that working hard is just the number one thing you can do.”
Gafford picked up his fourth foul with 9:26 left and the Razorbacks leading 54-45, but wasn’t needed again as Chaney and Bailey took care of the front-court duties the rest of the game.
“The mindset was just to stay engaged, keep on the boards and be aggressive because we were losing that inside presence with Daniel,” Chaney said. “We had to pick up the slack and just stay aggressive.”
Arkansas actually closed the game out on a 24-15 run without Gafford, who checked back in at 6:31, but never played and immediately checked back out, replaced by Chaney.
“That is the thing about the growth in this basketball team,” Anderson said. “There are going to be some times where he (Gafford) may get in foul trouble. Who are the guys who are going to come in and give us some great minutes?”
Chaney, who is originally from Tulsa and moved to Texas in high school before finishing his high school career at Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., was 4-of-7 from the field, had two offensive and six defensive rebounds and also showed off his defensive prowess in the game.
“Reggie is so versatile because he can guard a guard, and guard a forward,” Anderson said. “I think his ball skills will continue to get better, but what I love is his energy. He’s got some toughness and I think that cost him a technical foul tonight when a guy was posting up and they thought they were going to call him for a flagrant foul.
“He just has to learn how to challenge that energy, but that is being young. I always say that I love aggressiveness. You can always temper it down, but it is hard to speed it up.”
Bailey played 24 minutes, Gafford 22, Chaney 18 and Gabe Osabuohien 13 in Friday night’s win.
"(Chaney) is important to what we are doing,” Anderson said. “Those guys can’t play 35 or 30 minutes a game so you have got to have some people come off. To me, he is one of those guys that is eventually going to be a starter.”
Chaney had four points, three rebounds and three blocks in last Sunday’s win over Indiana and came into Friday's game averaging 2.3 points and 3.0 rebounds in an average of 11.7 minutes per game.
One of his baskets on Friday night was a rim-rattling, rebound slam to put Arkansas ahead 51-39.
“I was just always crashing the board,” Chaney said. “Coach always emphasizes crash the board and that every thing is a miss so I just crashed the board hard and ended up with dunk.”
When Chaney came off the court, he was greeted by Gafford throwing a towel in his face.
“It is just something I do to get the guys laughing,” Gafford said. “I am a really goofy person and I don’t like seeing sad faces like that. I am basically the energy guy and I am trying to bring people up. He had a good game and I wanted him to know he had a good game. Some of the mistakes he made, he can learn off of that.”
Gafford said he tries to keep the stoic Chaney’s head up.
“Basically what I tell him, whether he has a good day or not is the same thing and that’s hard work pays off,” Gafford said. “Main thing you can do is just get in the gym and work on the things you messed up on during the game and work on other things that you are good at and it will make you better.
“Hard work pays off. As you can see as days go by, you get better and better every day because you put the work in for it. That work ethic shows on and off the court.”