It’s good news and terrible news for the Howard University men’s basketball team going into the 2016-17 season.
The good news: the Bison are the preseason favorite to win the conference championship, making them relevant in basketball for the first time in more than two decades.
The terrible news: senior guard James “J-Byrd’’ Daniel III, the conference’s Player of the Year last season after leading the nation in scoring and the 2016-17 MEAC Preseason Player of the Year, will miss 4-6 weeks with a high sprain in his left ankle. Daniel was injured during practice when driving to the basket for a lay up and landed on a teammates’ foot.
Seeing Daniel go down is a bitter pill for Bison coach Kevin Nickelberry to swallow. But he is putting a positive spin on the situation and remains upbeat and optimistic about his team’s championship aspirations. That’s because the Bison are a talented and experienced team even without Daniel, who is one of eight seniors and five returning starters.
“We have enough to go out and do what’s necessary and compete at the level we expect to compete,’’ Nickelberry says. “You’re not going to replace James Daniel. I didn’t bring in another James Daniel. There’s not another seasoned veteran guy who walks out there with the belief that he’s better than anybody the floor. But I have confidence in these guys.’’
Even with four starters available – center Marcel Boyd, a preseason All-MEAC pick, guard James Miller, swingman Damon Collins and forward Tyler Stone – Nickelberry acknowledges that optimism wasn’t his immediate reaction to Daniel’s injury.
“When it first happened you would have thought I got shot in the stomach,’’ he says. “All of the air went out of the gym. After going through a sleepless night, I realized there is a positive in anything.’’
The injury bug is no stranger to the Bison. It visited them early and often last season, and they didn’t have the depth to overcome losing key players. It’s different situation this season. Even though Daniel clearly is a more prominent part of Howard’s scheme than the team members who were injured last season, the Bison have more depth than a year ago and should be better able to hold things together until he returns.
Nickelberry sees Daniel’s injury as an opportunity for the likes of Boyd and Miller, among others, to assume larger roles. Boyd averaged 10.4 points per game last season and shot 52.9 percent from the field, No. 4 in the conference. He also averaged 9.9 rebounds, second-best in the conference. Miller, a redshirt junior, averaged 15 a game through the first five games a year ago before going down for the season with a fractured hand.
Solomon Mangham, a 6-7 senior backup forward, was having his best season averaging 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds before he was injured 14 games into the 2015-16 campaign. He is expected to pick up where he left off. Redshirt senior guard Prince Okoroh sat out last season after averaging 17.0 points two years is back on the squad and will provide additional scoring.
Freshman guard Charles Williams is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of Daniel being sidelined. Williams, 6-4, is an athletic scorer who can also play small forward.
“When you have a kid so dynamic (as Daniel) you depend on him a little too much, especially in big games,’’ Nickelberry says. “It’s going to make our freshmen and newcomers a little bit better early. We feel we can compete with anybody. I think it will help us. We have to look at it as an opportunity for other guys to get better and prepare us for when he comes back. In the long run this helps. Give these guys some minutes so they can get better.’’
When Daniel returns to the Bison lineup, he will be chasing the MEAC career points record. He has scored 1,899 points in his first three seasons while averaging 21.6 points game. He needs 377 points to pass Delaware State’s Tom Davis, who scored 2,275 points from 1987-91. Daniel has failed to score double figures just six times in 88 career games, and he has scored 30 or more points 14 times, making it a question of when, not if, he will break Davis’ record.
“He is very tough to guard because he has quick release,’’ says Coppin State coach Michael Grant. “He’s quick with the basketball. He is a threat because wherever he is on the floor you have to be concerned about him regardless if he is 15 feet from the basket or 30 feet from the basket. He will be willing to pull up and take that shot with any space that he gets.”
Daniel is capable of scoring in flurries. He had 35 points in the second half en route to a career-high 39 points against William & Mary and he scored 31 points in a half in a game against Norfolk State.
Hampton coach Ed Joyner has seen plenty of Daniel going back to when Daniel was a standout at Pheobus High in Hampton, Va. When Daniel returns home during the summer, he makes his way to Hampton University where he plays pickup games against many of the Pirates. Joyner says he has seen Daniel develop into a well-rounded player, and anyone who thinks of him as a shooter and nothing more is mistaken.
“When people see him, they see the scoring that he does,’’ says Joyner. “I’ve seen him grow defensively; I’ve seen him mature on the basketball court as far as understanding the game and not just how to score but how to get others involved. It has been a fun thing to watch.’’
Nickelberry says Daniel had no choice but to expand his game because of how opponents defended him. Nickelberry says last year was the first time, in his 27 years of coaching, that he has seen a player trapped and forced to give up the ball as soon as he crossed half court.
“Basically, they were saying he won’t beat us,’’ says Nickelberry. “Everyone else has to beat us. Basically, he had to become a better player as far as making guys around him better. He learned to defer. His leadership got better. He developed the ability to be relaxed in any situation, in any moment.’’
Nickelberry expects Daniel to be even better this season because of the work he put in during the offseason. He says Daniel is stronger after spending considerable time in the weight room, and he has a better understanding of the game thanks to studying more tape. Daniel also worked on making contested shots, which should lead to him improving on his .38 field percentage from last year.
But Nickelberry’s greatest expectation is that Daniel will lead the Bison to their first MEAC championship since 1992.
“He’s the guy who told me four years ago ‘Coach, we’re going to win the MEAC,’’’ Nickelberry says. “I believed him. These guys have believed since day one we could be in position; we’ve got to finish what we started.’’