VIDEO: CATCHING UP WITH TROY DANIELS

Hi Troy!

CANDY BARS, GOLFING FOR DOLLARS & HOOPS NUGGETS

It’s a good idea to keep these away from me.

I don’t spend much time talking about fundraising on here, mostly because I’ve never been very good at it. I once ate $18 worth of Caramellos, about half my inventory, that I was supposed to sell for Pony League baseball. I had to mow my grandmother’s lawn to pay myself back. I learned two things from the experience. No. 1, Caramellos are delicious. No. 2…what was I talking about?

Moving on. Thankfully, there are plenty of people in and around VCU Athletics who make sure we have the resources necessary to compete and provide an all-around excellent student-athlete experience. In recent years, a group of women close to the program has stepped up with an effort to carry the torch for women’s athletics here at VCU.

The annual VCU Women’s Golf Tournament, now in its second year, is a product of their efforts. In just two years, the tournament has become one of VCU’s largest fundraisers. Tremendous effort.

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Meanwhile, we’ve reached what is basically the midpoint for fall sports, and a few programs are starting to find themselves.

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NBA TRAINING CAMPS OPEN

Troy Daniels aims for an expanded role in Charlotte this season.

As of Tuesday, all NBA training camps had opened, which means a couple of former VCU stars are back to work.

For Troy Daniels, training camp won’t be so much about making the Charlotte Hornets’ roster as it is convincing Coach Steve Clifford to expand his role. Daniels, who was traded twice last season, arrived in Charlotte in February and saw action in just 11 games with the team. In his first six weeks with the Hornets, Daniels played in just four games. It wasn’t until the final weeks of the season that Clifford finally called Daniels’ number. Daniels averaged about 26 minutes in the Hornets last four games of the season and knocked down 12-of-26 three-point field goals during that stretch. Daniels topped 15 points three times during that stretch, including a 24-point effort to end the year.

During an interview this summer, Clifford said Daniels would see more action, but how much remains unclear. It’s worth noting the Hornets finished last in the NBA in 3-point shooting (.318) last season. I’m sure Clifford has noticed.

Daniels has been limited early in camp by a strained hamstring, but it’s not expected to linger.

Meanwhile, here’s Troy’s face:

The many faces of @troydaniels on #HornetsMediaDay 👍🏽 #TwitterMirror 👀 pic.twitter.com/xxuZAij2Vx

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) September 25, 2015

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RAMS GET HOT IN NBA SUMMER LEAGUES

VCU alum Troy Daniels led Charlotte with 16 points and 14 rebounds Tuesday.

Two former VCU standouts tore it up in NBA Summer League action Tuesday. As if we had any doubt. You and I know what guys like Troy Daniels and Treveon Graham can do on the basketball court, but it’s nice for them to remind NBA eyeballs from time-t0-time.

Daniels and Graham are in very different situations. Daniels, who is open more often than 7-Eleven, has a guaranteed contract for this season and has a fairly secure roster spot. During Tuesday’s game with the Nets, Hornets’ GM Rich Cho said that Daniels would get minutes this season. Graham, on the other hand, is trying to channel his inner Troy Daniels by going from undrafted rookie to NBA veteran. He certainly helped himself Tuesday.

Daniels, who never averaged more than 3.3 rebounds per game in his VCU career, grabbed 14 caroms against the Nets in Orlando and scored 16 points in a 64-55 win. You might not have expected that, but you certainly counted on Daniels to light it up from 3-point land, and he did, knocking down 4-of-6 triples on the way to a 16-point effort.

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PHOTOS: Today’s #HornetsSummer game against the @BrooklynNets More: http://t.co/Gtd6WaE74D pic.twitter.com/tI9JeuvIOn

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) July 7, 2015

In three summer league games, Daniels is averaging a team-best 15.7 points, while shooting a robust 55 percent (11-of-20) from three. He’s also pulling down 7.7 rebounds per game, which is, if you don’t mind me saying, very Treveon Graham-like. Here’s Daniels’ postgame interview.

Just because, here’s a Troy Daniels highlight mix. Spoiler alert: copious amounts of 3-pointers.

Meanwhile, Graham, playing for the Spurs in the Utah Summer League, got busy Tuesday against the Jazz with 17 points in 21 minutes of burn. In two summer league games, Graham is averaging 10.5 points, while shooting 64 percent (7-of-11) from the field.

Treveon Graham having a really solid game. So tough. Knocked down a spot three, in on the O-Boards, filling the lanes in transition.

— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) July 8, 2015

San Antonio already has a deep roster, especially with the additions of LaMarcus Aldridge and David West, but Graham certainly has the kind of attributes that seem to work in that organization. Right now, he’s trying to convince the Spurs that he either deserves a spot on the team as the third shooting guard behind Danny Green and Manu Ginobili (both established) or that he can hold his own as an undersized small forward amid a group that includes Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Anderson and Reggie Williams. Of that SF group, only Leonard is a lock. Marco Belinelli’s departure to Sacramento certainly opens the door a crack. Also, food for thought, this is probably Ginobili’s last season.

Graham and the Spurs will play again Thursday at 7 p.m. EST against the Celtics. That game will be broadcast on NBA TV.

 

 

WILL VEGAS SPUR GRAHAM TO NBA?

Treveon Graham, the second-leading scorer in VCU Basketball history, is hoping to find a home in San Antonio, via Las Vegas.

Graham, who was not selected in Thursday’s NBA Draft, will play for the San Antonio Spurs NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas July 10-20. He hopes to follow a path to the similar to that of former Ram Troy Daniels, who was not drafted in 2013, but managed to garner the attention of teams while playing for Charlotte during the Las Vegas Summer League. Daniels, currently a member of the Charlotte Hornets, has also played for the Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves.

It’s unclear if Graham will also play in either the Orlando or Utah summer leagues, although it is not uncommon for a player to compete for multiple organizations during summer league season.

Below is the Spurs’ Vegas schedule, which strangely does not include the Carrot Top show at Luxor. But there’s still time. Meanwhile, NBATV will broadcast tons of summer league action again this year. The network has not published a schedule beyond July 11, but expect most, if not all, of Graham’s games with the Spurs to be broadcast.

UPDATE: Juvonte Reddic has announced he’ll play for the Brooklyn Nets’ summer league team in Las Vegas. I’ve updated the schedule with Brooklyn’s games. Reddic spent last season playing for two different teams in Italy.

UPDATE #2: I can’t update this post quickly enough. Bradford Burgess, who has been playing professionally in Belgium and Italy the last few years, as signed on to the Miami Heat’s summer team. He will play in both Orlando and Las Vegas.

The schedule below has been updated. Again.

VCU IN THE NBA SUMMER LEAGUE (All times listed as EST)

ORLANDO
Saturday, July 4
Miami vs. Indiana, 9 a.m. – NBATV

Sunday, July 5
Miami vs. Brooklyn, 5 p.m. – NBATV

Monday, July 6
Miami vs. Detroit, 5 p.m. – NBATV

Wednesday, July 8
Miami vs. L.A. Clippers, 5 p.m. NBATV

Friday, July 10
Championship

LAS VEGAS
Saturday, July 11
New York vs. San Antonio (Thomas & Mack Center), 4:30 p.m. – NBATV
Brooklyn vs. Cleveland (Cox Pavilion), 10 p.m.
Miami vs. Utah (Thomas & Mack Center), 10:30 p.m. – NBATV

Sunday, July 12
Milwaukee vs. San Antonio (Thomas & Mack Center), 6:30 p.m. – NBATV

Monday, July 13
New Orleans vs. Brooklyn (Thomas & Mack Center), 4:30 p.m.
Miami vs. Denver (Cox Pavilion), 8 p.m.

Tuesday, July 14
Portland vs. San Antonio (Cox Pavilion), 3 p.m.
Brooklyn vs. Chicago (Cox Pavilion), 5 p.m.
Miami vs. Boston (Cox Pavilion), 7 p.m.

July 15-20
Playoffs

TALE OF THREE CITIES; DANIELS ON THE MOVE IN 2ND NBA SEASON

VCU alum Troy Daniels is averaging 2.7 points and shooting .317 from 3-point range this season.

Troy Daniels is technically a Houston resident – he has a town home there – but he’s officially been living out of a suitcase the past couple of months.

It’s been a whirlwind second NBA season for the former VCU sharpshooter. Daniels, briefly a playoff hero for the Houston Rockets last season, has been traded twice since December. Despite the shuffling of zip codes, Daniels is still happy to be wearing in NBA uniform, regardless of where the team is located.

“It’s fun to even be considered by an NBA team, and I just appreciate the opportunities I’ve been given,” he says.

For now, and presumably for the near future, he’s a Charlotte Hornet, but he also thought he’d be a Houston Rocket for a while, until the team dealt him to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 19. Before he’d even had time to pick out a favorite grocery store, he and teammate Mo Williams were traded to Charlotte on Feb 10.

It’s actually Daniels’ second tour of duty with the Hornets. Daniels played for the organization’s summer league team and earned a training camp invite as an undrafted free agent in 2013.

The irony is that Charlotte, then known as the Bobcats, cut Daniels, which actually may have helped launch his NBA career. He was quickly signed by Houston, which stashed him with its Rio Grande D-League team. Daniels flourished in Rio Grande’s revolutionary, 3-point-heavy system, as the Roanoke, Virginia native set a D-League single-season record for threes.

VCU RAMS IN THE PROS: MEN’S BASKETBALL

Troy Daniels is averaging 3.5 points in 11 games with the Minnesota Timberwolves this season.

NBA

Troy Daniels ’13 (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Daniels has played fewer than 40 NBA games, but he’s already had an eventful career. Although he signed a two-year contract extension with the Houston Rockets in the offseason, Daniels was traded in December to the Timberwolves. The move has resulted in slightly more playing time for the former VCU sharpshooter (9.4 mpg to 6.4 mpg). Overall, Daniels is averaging 3.0 points, while shooting 32 percent (23-of-73) from 3-point range in 28 games this season.

Daniels was understandably one of the NBA’s feel-good stories last season. After averaging 21.5 points per game while setting 3-point shooting records at the Rockets’ D-League affiliate, Daniels earned a late-season call-up. Despite playing in just five regular-season games (averaging 8.5 ppg), Daniels averaged 17 minutes per game off the bench in the Rockets’ playoff series with Portland. In Game Three, Daniels broke a 116-116 tie with a 3-pointer with 12 seconds remaining in overtime. Houston won 121-116.

Larry Sanders ’10 (Milwaukee Bucks)
Sanders, hoping to bounce back from a 2013-14 season marred by injuries and suspension, was averaging 7.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots in 27 games before taking a leave to deal with personal issues. Sanders said recently he is working through those issues and hopes to be in a position to play again at some point. It is unclear when he will return.

Sanders has averaged 6.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks shots per game in five seasons with the Bucks.

OVERSEAS

L.F. Likholitov ’02 (Krasny Oktyabr – Russia)
St. Petersburg, Russia native L.F. Likholitov has continues to plug away as a pro with Krasny Oktyabr, where he’s currently teaming with LeBron James’ high school teammate (and former European teammate of Jamal Shuler) Romeo Travis. The 34-year-old Likholitov has appeared in eight games this season and is averaging 2.3 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. Likholitov ranks second in VCU history with 207 blocked shots.

VCU-ETSU THROWBACK: NUCLEAR TROY DANIELS

Monday night, VCU and East Tennessee State resume a series that dates back to 1971. VCU leads the all-time series 10-0 and perhaps the most memorable of those games was the last between these two schools, a January 2, 2013 match-up. In that contest, Troy Daniels erupted for a school-record 11 three-pointers, some of them from “I-Dare-You” range, in a 109-58 rout. Let’s relive that memorable performance.

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Here’s the VCU box from that night:

Not only were Daniels’ 11 threes the most in college basketball that season, but Ken Pomeroy says the 33:12 it took him was the quickest anybody’s taken 20 attempts since 2010.

Here’s how the Internet reacted to Daniels’ performance.

TROY DANIELS, HOTTER THAN THE SUN(S)

This year, Troy Daniels is in the Houston Rockets’ training camp not as an unknown free agent clinging to hope – as he was last year at this time – but as a guy who has already won his roster spot and is now looking to carve out a more prominent role. Daniels appears on the right track in the early going. Although coaches love to run out all kinds of lineup combinations in NBA preseason games, the former VCU sharpshooter has managed to impress. Monday night, he scored 12 points for the Rockets in a win over the Phoenix Suns – including a floater, which somebody should tell him is only worth two points. We all know Troy Daniels has no time for baskets worth less than three points. Have no fear, he made three 3-pointers as well and is 5-of-11 from long range in three preseason games. Thankfully, the Internet is here to provide us with highlights of Daniels’ effort tonight. Thanks Interwebs!

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RAM REPORT: SPRING 2014

The Spring 2014 Ram Report is now online. Plenty to digest, including features on VCU Baseball’s Seth Greene (who lost his mother entirely too young), Lacrosse’s Jen O’Brien (starting a program from scratch) and Khalid Khamis (who left his native Sudan). There are also artistic renderings of VCU’s new basketball practice facility and the forthcoming centerhung scoreboard and video boards, as well as other tidbits. Check it out HERE (or click on the big picture).