Villanova Basketball 2021-22 player preview: Caleb Daniels

Caleb Daniels

Height: 6-4
Weight: 210
Hometown: New Orleans, La.
High School: St. Augustine
Former College: Tulane

Caleb Daniels player preview:

Caleb Daniels previously transferred from Tulane after the 2018-2019 season. After one year of redshirting, Daniels was ready to be a contributor to the ‘Cats for the 2020-2021 season. He appeared to have an immediate impact on the team from the beginning.

He cracked the starting lineup right away and played well through the first nine games of the season. He averaged 12.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists, shooting 58.3% inside the arc and 43.8% from long range.

Although he had to sit out the redshirt year, it looked like the extra time spent around the team put him in a position to excel right away once he was eligible.

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Part of this quick learning is probably due to Daniels’ year of redshirting where he was able to pick up on the Villanova way of basketball and practice everyday with ‘Nova veterans.

“I really am impressed,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said of Daniels early play. “We don’t really have a lot of transfers, especially guys that come in and play right away.”

Then, Villanova’s COVID-related pauses happened, and it was eventually unveiled that Daniels was one of the two players to test positive for coronavirus.

He eventually returned to the court and did pretty well for himself, finishing the season with 9.6 points per game, a 41.4% shooting clip overall, and a 38.6% showing from deep.

However, it was clear that he wasn’t the same player. He struggled with consistency in the second half of the season. His numbers dipped, only averaging 7.9 points over the last 16 games, with only a 34.1% clip inside the arc and 34.8% from deep.

Eventually, it was unveiled that he was continuing to struggle with after effects from COVID-19, and according to Wright, they persisted into the summer.

“Caleb Daniels had remaining issues from COVID through the summer that he struggled with, and he’s completely clear, but he missed the summer,” Wright said. “He was here, but he wasn’t clear to play. Then, he got cleared at the end of July. He’s completely fine, completely clear and back at it, but we had him out.”

Hopefully, he’ll be back to normal and now that Daniels has had a year to get acclimated to “the Villanova way” of playing basketball, combined with his incredible talent, he definitely becomes one to watch this season.

Best Case Scenario: Daniels builds off of last season and is an even bigger contributor in the lineup this year. His COVID troubles are behind him, and we get to see Daniels get off to another hot start shooting the rock and remains consistent in an even larger role this year. Daniels becomes one of Wright’s go-to guys averaging double digits per game and generating opportunities for other players to score. He averaged just 1.2 assists per game last season, but maybe he can create more opportunities for his guys. Lastly, Daniels improves upon his three-point shooting and breaks the 40% mark.

Worst Case Scenario: Daniels struggles and doesn’t hit his stride after the setbacks he faced from COVID last season, plus the offseason. He does not shoot as consistently or becomes a liability on defense, while someone else takes his spot as a starter or some of his minutes. Even if Daniels does not start, barring injury, he will still play a major role on the team as one of the first players off the bench.