BUFFALO — On Feb. 29, 2020, Lewiston-Porter’s season came to an end with a 83-71 loss to Sweet Home.
Despite the pain of the loss, then sophomore Roddy Gayle did not expect his Lewiston-Porter career to end that night.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
New York State high school sports were impacted by the pandemic. As a result, Gayle decided to transfer to Wasatch Academy in Utah for his final two years of high school.
Now, six years and two colleges later, the Niagara Falls native is back. He’s home for the start of his final run as a college player.
Gayle and top-seeded Michigan will be facing off against No. 16 Howard at 7:10 p.m. Thursday. And Gayle is expecting there to be plenty of people there to support him on the big stage.
“It means a lot, just to play in front of so many family and friends,” Gayle said. “… I haven’t had the opportunity to be able to play here obviously after my freshman, sophomore year. So being back home, seeing loved ones and having them see me play basketball for the first time in probably a half a decade. It’s amazing.”
Roddy Sr., rarely misses one of his son’s games. The Gayle family travels across the country to watch Roddy Jr. play for the Wolverines. It is what they do for vacation.
A year after traveling to Denver and Atlanta to watch Roddy Jr. in the NCAA Tournament, the Gayles simply have to travel south on the I-190.
“It feels like full-circle,” Roddy Sr. said. “All he’s been through from going to Wasatch and to Ohio (State), and to end it at Michigan, and for his friends and family to see him here, it means a lot.”
When Gayle steps out onto the floor for the first time against Howard, he will be concentrating more on making sure this is not the final game of his college career than the fact that he is at home.
He wants to put on a show for his friends and family and move onto the Sweet 16.
“I think it’ll just be, just the support is really what it is,” Roddy Jr. said. “I (am) just taking it one game at a time. Obviously, I want to get out of Buffalo. That’s the ultimate goal, win these two games and get out of Buffalo, move on and advance, use the energy to kind of fuel me, allow me to play hard.”
The work to get here started long before he steps onto the floor against the MEAC champions. It started when he was a kid in Niagara Falls and it continued when he was in high school playing for Lewiston-Porter head coach Matt Bradshaw.
Bradshaw coached Gayle through his first two years of high school and has kept in contact with him over the years.
“I spent a lot of time with Roddy when he was at Lew-Port. We spent a lot of mornings working out, 6 a.m. workouts,” Bradshaw said. “The best part of it is not necessarily the basketball aspect but the type of kid he is. When you see a kid who is not only talented but even has the humility that he has, it’s awesome to see the success that he is having.”
Niagara Falls’ Roddy Gayle Jr. helping Michigan to top-five ranking
This season, Gayle is averaging seven points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Gayle’s 27 steals are the second-most on his team.
When Michigan head coach Dusty May thinks about Gayle’s journey, he thinks about another Lew-Port alumni who made it big. He thinks about former Dallas Cowboys fullback Darryl Johnston.
“It’s really cool to have a local story like Roddy’s,” May said. “… That’s the beautiful thing about the NCAA; there’s so many of these stories that if you don’t make the tournament are never out in the world. … That’s how I feel about our guys. If we don’t have the success that we’ve had, the world doesn’t get a chance to see who they are as people.”
In the lead-up to this game, Gayle’s childhood home in Niagara Falls will certainly be very busy as friends and family are coming over to see him and support him. Gayle is looking forward to having some of his mother Latoya’s food.
After eating many similar meals throughout the season, Gayle is looking forward to having some homecooking.
“They are definitely calling, talking about when is Roddy coming home and they know he’s going to end up at the house at some point in time,” Roddy Sr. said. “if it’s Friday, if they win Thursday, he’ll be here Friday. … Everybody want to see him and my wife wanna cook and give him a good dinner, and his friends, his teammates.”
Roddy Gayle’s hoops path is lined with Niagara Falls coaches who helped him become one of Michigan’s key players
Roddy is the first Western New Yorker to play in Buffalo in the NCAA Tournament since 2004, when East Aurora’s Dave Mallon played for St. Joseph’s.
Lackawanna’s Kevin Kuwik — now the head coach at Army — was an assistant when Dayton played in Buffalo in 2014, while Jamestown’s Bryan Hodgson returned this year as South Florida’s head coach.
“It just means a lot,” Roddy Jr. said. “Hopefully the younger generation look at this and see a kid being from Niagara Falls, New York and seeing them at this stage and being able to come here and see the progress that I’ve made throughout my career and be able to follow the steps that I’ve made. It’s just always for me to just kind of leave a legacy no matter what.”