Daniels gets into groove vs. Rams

Is it anger that's driving him? Or is the need for Greedy Daniels to win so great that he's willing to take a physical beating every night just to prove a point?

By now, the halfway point of UNLV's final season in the Western Athletic Conference, the 6-foot sophomore guard from New Orleans knows what the score is, as it pertains to him. He's a backup combo guard whose primary responsibility is to play defense, set the tempo and not exceed the parameters coach Bill Bayno has designated for him.

And that's not easy to accept, especially for someone with Daniels' considerable talent, not to mention the high-falutin' reputation he brought to Las Vegas as a prep All-American out of Cohen High School.

Sometimes, he doesn't accept it, as was the case a week ago when Bayno yanked him out of the TCU game for chucking one up a little quick. The two had words and Daniels found himself crying tears of frustration in the locker room at halftime, another victim of Bayno's tough-love policy -- a policy he doesn't necessarily embrace.

Then there's Saturday's game with Colorado State where Daniels dominates the game at both ends. He's driving to the basket with impunity. He's burying 3-pointers from everywhere. He's picking Milt Palacio's pocket down the stretch to preserve UNLV's 80-77 win.

Even a couple of hard, back picks set by a couple of the Rams' tall trees that left Daniels in search of a chiropractor didn't prevent him from leaving the Thomas & Mack Center with a smile.

On the surface, it would appear that Daniels is some sort of basketball chameleon, not knowing what you're going to see from night to night. Fact is, he plays the same way -- hard -- every night. It's more a matter of the decision-making process that determines what kind of game Daniels is going to have.

Saturday, he couldn't have been any more flawless.

He took good shots. He didn't try to force the issue. He played within Bayno's boundaries and he helped out on trying to defend one of the WAC's best players. And despite the fact Palacio scored a game-high 31 points, Daniels did a pretty good job on him.

"Some nights, I get in the groove," Daniels said, offering an explanation for his 16-point, 3-steal, zero turnover performance against Colorado State. "It was a night where everything went right."

So why can't every night be like Saturday?

"I'm trying to be more consistent with what I do out on the floor," Daniels said. "One thing I know is I can't get by on just my athletic ability anymore. I have to let the game come to me and not try and force things."

It's a telling statement, one that Bayno has been emphasizing to Daniels in the two years he has been in the program.

Don't force it. Don't try to be a hero.

After all, UNLV has enough guys who can fill that role, such as Shawn Marion. He had what Bayno called a "heroic" career-high 30 points along with 15 rebounds, carrying the Rebels to their ninth win in the last 10 games as UNLV ended the first half of conference play atop the Mountain Division at 6-1.

He has a hero in starting point guard Mark Dickel, who once again hit a couple of big perimeter shots early, then settled down to the task at hand, which is getting the ball to the others to score.

The 6-2 junior from New Zealand had nine points, nine assists and no turnovers in 38 minutes. And through the first half of WAC play, Dickel's assists-to-turnovers ratio is an incredible 7-to-1.

But Daniels was no less a hero Saturday.

"Huge," Bayno said of Daniels' effort. "You look at Shawn's first half (a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds) and they were sitting on Shawn's lap in the second half. That left Greedy open and he stepped up and made some big shots and some big plays."

archive