Columnist Steve Carp: Greedy, TCU can be a good fit

Steve Carp

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999 | 10:19 a.m.

Steve Carp is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at carp@lasvegassun.com or 259-4087. Regular sports columnist Dean Juipe is on vacation.

Part of life is getting a second chance and turning a negative situation into a positive. Sometimes, you don't get a second chance and you're left holding the bag.

But most times, you get an opportunity for vindication. So here's hoping today, on the first day of classes at Texas Christian University, that Edwin Daniels takes advantage of that chance.

We knew him as "Greedy" during his two-year stint at UNLV where he was unable to connect with coach Bill Bayno on the basketball court. At TCU, perhaps he will become the player everyone thought he would be here, when he was recruited out of Cohen High School in New Orleans.

On the surface it seems like a good fit. TCU plays a frenetic style of basketball under Billy Tubbs and Daniels' game is more like 78 rpms than 33 1/3. He's not a slowdown style of player, nor is he a shooting guard, which is what he was most of the time at UNLV.

There were times where Daniels was absolutely brilliant, finding his teammates with pinpoint passes leading to spectacular dunks. And of course, there were times he'd throw the ball into the sixth row of the Thomas & Mack and have people muttering obscenities under their breath at both Daniels for the miscue and Bayno for recruiting him.

It would be easy to predict that Daniels is going to become the player UNLV fans hoped he would now that he's at TCU. But it's a little more complicated than that.

It will take a combined effort on the part of Daniels and Tubbs to see that the good wins out over the recklessness. It really can go either way. The good thing for Daniels is that he has a year to figure out what he has to do to realize the immense potential that lies within that 6-foot, tattoo-covered frame of his and make his final two collegiate seasons worthwhile.

For as much as Tubbs loves athleticism in his players, he also demands results. And if Daniels doesn't produce, he'll be as miserable at TCU as he was at UNLV.

Daniels also has some maturing to do. After the Nebraska loss in the first round of the NIT, Daniels said he was staying put at UNLV because the competitor in him wasn't going to walk away from a bad situation, that he wasn't taught to quit.

A few weeks later, he was asking for and received a release from his scholarship with the Rebels and was headed to Mississippi State. Then, in early May, after meeting with his friends back in New Orleans, Daniels' name appeared on the list of players who had made themselves available for the 1999 NBA Draft.

It's one thing to be Shawn Marion and say you're leaving early. Daniels? Anderson Hunt had a better case back in 1991 throwing his name into the ring than Daniels did, and he wasn't close to being ready for the NBA.

Suffice to say, he got a quick case of the smarts and withdrew his name before it cost him his college career. But where would he go? There was a rumor he was going to go to Tulane. There was talk he was reconsidering Mississippi State. He and Bayno even talked about him sticking it out at UNLV.

But in the end, Daniels had to leave. Here, he was never going to take over for Mark Dickel at the point.

At TCU, he'll get the chance to be the player he believes he can be. If he's smart he'll take advantage of the opportunity to grow up -- both on and off the court.

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