{"id":1415108,"date":"2022-04-01T14:44:49","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T18:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1415108"},"modified":"2022-04-01T14:44:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T18:44:53","slug":"villanova-guard-has-a-deeper-appreciation-for-basketball-after-health-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/villanova-guard-has-a-deeper-appreciation-for-basketball-after-health-scare\/","title":{"rendered":"Villanova Guard Has A \u2018Deeper Appreciation\u2019 For Basketball After Health Scare"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvillanova-guard-has-a-deeper-appreciation-for-basketball-after-health-scare%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1415108&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1388854928.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Division 1 college athletes have known little except the sport they excel in, with most of their young lives spent honing their craft in order to make it to the next level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To have it taken away, or at least threatened, is hard to comprehend. For Villanova senior guard Caleb Daniels, a medical condition made him take a step back from the game he loves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Last April, Daniels was diagnosed with <\/span><span>myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, and a diagnosis that required rest in order to heal. For Daniels, that meant no basketball. From April until September, Daniels was forced to refrain from participating in physical activities, not fully knowing when he\u2019d be able to return.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt was a long journey and it still is a long journey,\u201d Daniels told reporters on Friday. \u201cWhen I initially caught COVID, it was stressful and I was trying to just get back, trying to stay in shape which is kind of tough because I was in a lot of pain. I initially caught COVID last year, and then I took the summer off because I had my heart condition and I wasn\u2019t healthy, but I took it day-by-day. It was a marathon and the process wasn\u2019t going to happen overnight. It was more of a gradual time period. So, my coaches and my brothers kept me up and kept me positive as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In September, Daniels was cleared to play, and the senior guard has played well for the Wildcats this season. Daniels has played in 34 games for Villanova, logging 27.3 minutes per game, averaging 10.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHe\u2019s been through everything,\u201d head coach Jay Wright said on Thursday. \u201cHe\u2019s got COVID twice. He had myocarditis. All the things we feared that you test for, that you worry about young athletes getting, he got it. He was out from April to September. He couldn\u2019t do anything. Nothing. He couldn\u2019t even shoot free throws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAnd then he comes back this year and he gets COVID again,\u201d Wright continued. \u201cAnd he\u2019s missed so much. And to see him playing at the level he is right now, and to be back home in New Orleans is awesome. What\u2019s been so impressive is I think his faith and his mental toughness. You never saw him down. You never saw it, even when he was coming back from injuries and stuff, you didn\u2019t see him frustrated. It\u2019s incredible. And it\u2019s why he\u2019s in the position he is in now. And as I said, he\u2019s playing the best basketball of his career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Daniels will be expected to take on an increased workload in Villanova\u2019s semifinal matchup against Kansas, following the news that starting guard Justin Moore tore his achilles against Houston in the Elite Eight. Regardless of the outcome, Daniels says that his health battles have given him a \u201cdeeper appreciation\u201d for the game he loves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cGoing through what I\u2019ve been through, it brought a deeper appreciation for basketball,\u201d Daniels said. \u201dKnowing that it can be taken from you at any given time. So you have to appreciate every moment you have on the court, with my teammates and my brothers and my coaches. Just knowing that it can be taken in the blink of an eye, definitely brought a deeper level of appreciation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Villanova and Kansas will tip off in the first game of the Final Four, Saturday at 6:09 eastern. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Enter for the chance to hang out with Gina Carano at the premiere of her new Daily Wire movie, Terror on the Prairie! Two lucky Daily Wire members will be given the complete red carpet treatment \u2013 free airfare, hotel, premiere car service, and exclusive merch. Daily Wire members can click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/redcarpet\">here<\/a>\u00a0to enter for a chance to win. If you\u2019re not a Daily Wire member yet, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/subscribe\">here<\/a>\u00a0to join us so you can win this once-in-a-lifetime experience.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Division 1 college athletes have known little except the sport they excel in, with most of their young lives spent honing their craft in order to make<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1415108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1415108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1415108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1415108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}