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| via @KitWatGuy (Twitter) - Elgadi (L) and former WCI teammate Jacob Ranton |
An interesting sidenote is that, as Bryson notes, Elgadi's really come on over the past couple of years in terms of his development. He was an "8th ish" man for the 2010 WCSSAA champion (and CWOSSA silver medalist) WCI junior team, proving that hard work can indeed pay off.
From a basketball standpoint, Dani Elgadi is doing far better in his first year of university than he was in first year of high school.
The Waterloo native is the highest scoring freshman and top first-year rebounder in Ontario University Athletics heading into Wednesday's road game against the University of Waterloo Warriors. He has averaged 30.4 minutes of floor time in 15 games and leads the Badgers in scoring (17.2 per game), rebounds (10.1 per game) and blocks (1.3 per game).
It's been a remarkable debut for the six-foot-seven forward who was a self-described "unathletic twig" when he was cut from the junior team during his Grade 9 year at Waterloo Collegiate Institute.
His strong play at Brock has led to speculation he'll receive consideration later this winter when it comes time to select the OUA's top rookie performer.
"Sure, I'd obviously like to be considered for rookie of the year but what I really want is to become a player that my teammates are proud of, my coach is proud of and someone I can be proud of. And I'll get that by working hard and continuing to improve," said Elgadi on Monday.
"To some degree, I'm a little bit surprised with the success I've had but I worked hard all summer and I've been training like crazy with my coaching staff and teammates."
The Badgers (2-14) are coming off a forgettable weekend of OUA play that saw them crushed twice in a 24-hour span by the visiting Lakehead Thunderwolves. Elgadi had 12 rebounds and a season-low six points in a 78-68 loss on Saturday and then had nine rebounds and nine points in a 99-57 blowout on Sunday.
The Thunderwolves played a physical game to slow down Elgadi, who admits he needs to add bulk to his 195-pound frame if he's going to achieve one of his goals of being recognized as one of the top players in Canadian University Sport.
"One thing I have to learn now that my name is getting out there a bit more, teams are going to start scouting me harder and that's something I'll have to get used to," he said.
"They know my strengths and weaknesses so I have to continue to get better and stronger because everybody is so much stronger at this level and it's something I need to improve on or they can completely shut me down."
Elgadi was dominant in the two games leading up to the Lakehead letdown, scoring 23 points and nine rebounds against Windsor and 31 points and 14 rebounds against Laurier.
Brock's first-year head coach Charles Kissi expects big things from Elgadi in the coming years as he attempts to rebuild the Brock program into a national power. The Badgers have twice won the Canadian championship, most recently in 2008 over Acadia.
"I expected him to do big things for us this year but maybe not this much. He's been tremendous for us and he represents what we're doing here in terms of building this program back to a national contender. He's the cornerstone," said Kissi.
"He makes mistakes obviously but he's learning and growing from them and that's what this year is about. . . . I want this year to be a great learning experience and I'm OK with losing a lot of games if it means we're going to achieve our goals in the future."
Elgadi had initially committed to play at the University of New Brunswick alongside Kitchener native and good friend Javon Masters but those plans fell through during the summer because of an admissions issue. Suddenly a "free agent," he considered offers from several universities before committing to Kissi, a coach who last year served as an apprentice under Toronto Raptors head coach Dwayne Casey.
Elgadi expects to see plenty of familiar faces in the crowd on Wednesday at UW's Physical Activities Complex. Among them, he hopes, will be WCI basketball coach/guidance counsellor Craig Nickel, who Elgadi calls his "basketball mentor."
"He's a big part of my life and I probably wouldn't be on a university basketball team without him. He's sculpted me into the player I am right now and I'm honoured to have him in my life and he'll always be part of my life," said Elgadi.
Brock will attempt to snap a six-game winning slide against UW, which is on a four-game skid and is also 2-14 in the OUA West standings. Brock defeated UW by an 80-75 decision in their first regular-season meeting on Nov. 30 in St. Catharines.
