FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ Daniel Gafford picked up a pair of national honors as he was voted Associated Press All-America honorable mention and named to the CollegeInsider.com Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America Team.
Gafford becomes the 29th Razorback to be named All-America and the 14th to make an AP All-America squad. Gafford is the first Razorback to be named to the Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America Team, an award that began in 2010.
Gafford’s honor comes after he was tabbed consensus first team All-SEC — just the sixth Razorback to be such honored — and being voted to the SEC All-Defensive Team, joining LSU’s Tremont Waters as the only players to be both consensus first team All-SEC and be named to the SEC All-Defensive Team this season.
A native of El Dorado, Gafford finished fifth in the NCAA in field goal percentage (.660) and led the SEC in the category by 95 percentage points over Tennessee’s Grant Williams (.565).
Gafford was one of two players in the NCAA (Gonzaga’s Brandon Clarke) to average at least 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots while shooting at least 60 percent from the field.
In the SEC, Gafford was the only player to rank among the league’s top five — much less top 10 — in scoring (4th; 16.9/game), rebounding (2nd; 8.7/game), field goal percentage (1st; .660), blocked shots (3rd, 2.0/game), offensive rebounds (2nd; 2.8/game) and defensive rebounds (3rd; 5.8/game).
In addition to blocking 2.0 shot per game (65 total for the season), Gafford led the Razorbacks with 151 deflections on the defensive end — 36 more than the next closest on the team.
Gafford finished his two-year Razorback career with 955 points, averaging 7.4 rebounds, a .635 (second-best in school history) and 141 blocked shots (sixth-best in school history).
