McDaniel buoyed by perfect start in Glasgow

Sam McDaniel commended the team-first nature of his Gangurrus side after they went unbeaten in their opening three games of the 3x3 basketball at the Commonwealth Games. 

McDaniel, who rejoined the Bullets on a multi-year deal this off-season, is playing at his first Commonwealth Games, having made his international debut at the Champions Cup in Thailand in March before representing the side again at the Asia Cup in Singapore. 

He scored 22 of Australia’s 63 points in their day one wins over New Zealand, Nigeria and Scotland, whilst collecting 15 rebounds across the three games. 

But he praised the selfless attitude of his team - which includes former Bullets Jared Bairstow, Perth Wildcats’ Jesse Wagstaff and Jonah Antionio - an NBL1 teammate of Lat Mayen - for the wins.

“I think the squad we’ve got at these Commonwealth Games is elite,” McDaniel said to NBL Now. 

“We’ve got guys who play specific roles and play them really well. A big contributor to our success so far is that we’ve got unselfish guys who just want to contribute to winning - whatever that looks like.

“Whoever has the hot hand or is playing well in that game, that’s where we’re going to continue to go. So far, so good.”

McDaniel also paid tribute to the home support after playing in front of a raucous Scottish crowd against the host nation.  

That clash took place after the Gangurrus had secured their first win of the competition over the Kiwis. 

“Finishing up against Scotland was cool, especially with them being the host nation and having the crowd behind them,” McDaniel said.

“They got pretty rowdy, so it was a special experience.

“It was good to play New Zealand first. We played them at the Asia Cup and they got the win over us, so it was good to get that one back.

“They’re super physical and they play a similar style to us, so it was a great test straight away.”

The gravity of representing his country isn’t lost on McDaniel, either.

He could become the second current Bullets player to medal at the Commonwealth Games, with Mitch Norton notching gold in 5-on-5 action on the Gold Coast in 2018. 

But he’s not getting too far ahead of himself, with two round robin games remaining against Guyana and the Cayman Islands before the play-in games, semi-finals and medal matches.

“Seeing all the other nations come in and represent their countries proudly - it’s just an absolute honour and privilege to be here representing mine as well,” McDaniel said.

“Obviously we’re confident…but we just take it one game at a time.

“We’ve got two really important games tomorrow that we want to take care of first, and then whatever happens after that, we’ll deal with it one game at a time.”

Remaining fixtures:

Australia v Guyana – Sunday 26 July - 11:50pm AEST

Australia v Cayman Islands – Monday 27 July - 5:20am AEST

‍