Jagan Daughters is a native of College Station, Texas. (Photo Courtesy: Deanbulldogs.com).
Some young basketball players try to be the hero of their team by being big-time scorers, but that was not the case for Jagan Daughters.
Daughters started playing basketball when he was four years old, watching his older brother play on a concrete basketball court in their backyard in Ballinger, Texas.
Growing up, Daughters spent a lot of time trying to model his game after small point guards by watching players like Steve Nash and Tyler Ulis to gain an understanding of how to play offense as a guard. On the defensive side, he focused his attention on Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics and Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Daughters started his high school playing career at College Station High School but transferred after his junior year since he felt it was not a good cultural fit. He ended up at Allen Academy in Bryan, Texas for his senior season, where he played as a pass-first point guard trying to think one step ahead of the defense. He was helped by the fact that he had two teammates who both averaged twenty points per game, which allowed him to average five assists a game. Daughters’ team at Allen Academy went 33-7 and won the state championship.
Daughters started his college playing career at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas where he quickly found out he had to adjust his game in part because of the shot clock. “When I first got to the college level, I realized that the pace is different where you are going up and down court and always going up against guys 6’8” or 6’9”, as opposed to driving the lane against a 6’4” guy. So, I can still be a pass-first player, but I have to take a shot when it is open because I might not get any more than that,” Daughters explained.
“Sometimes my teammates will give me a hard time because I pass up an open shot or layup and I try to pass to get the assist. I have been trying to transition now to look at the rim and score when I can,” Daughters said.
Daughters’ freshman year at Blinn College was right when COVID-19 started, and he was redshirted after his freshman year when he injured his pinkie. “I didn’t fit their playstyle since they were very scoring heavy and I wanted a systematic play style where I could fit in better,” Daughters mentioned.
On top of that, Blinn College had two guards from the DI level transferring in on the COVID transfer portal. But Daughters gives the coaching staff credit for working with him on transferring. “The coaches were completely transparent and open and honest which I appreciate, because a lot of coaches can be not open and honest,” Daughters explained.
Daughters was offered to play at multiple schools including Victoria College in Texas, West Moreland County Community College in Pennsylvania, and Ottawa University in Kansas. “I didn’t want to go to another junior college because then I would have to transfer in one and a half or two years later again, so I wanted a four-year school,” Daughters stated.
This led Daughters to Dean College solely because of the academics they had to offer. “I chose Dean because they have the Kraft Partnership for business management and sport management, so it stood out as the best academic option I had,” Daughters explained.
Daughters was unable to visit Dean as it was still during the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. “Coach Cabral still reached out almost every day, making sure I was being accepted and on the right track, so it made me feel wanted here at Dean,” Daughters mentioned.
The first semester at Dean for Daughters was the fall of 2020 when classes were online, and the news hit Daughters hard. “I was at my summer internship, and I go to my car to get my lunch, and my stomach dropped. I had already been home for three to four months since we were sent home early in the spring. Plus, I had already had a flight booked to go back to campus,” Daughters lamented. Instead, Daughters moved into an off-campus house at Texas A&M University with some of his high school friends from the basketball team for that semester.
When Daughters learned the basketball season would be canceled, he considered not showing up in person. “When the basketball season was canceled, I was at my internship and joined a Zoom meeting in October and I was devastated. I was thinking, what is the point of going if there is no season? However, I knew at some point I would have to end up on campus,” Daughters explained.
Coming from Texas, Daughters had another big adjustment coming his way when he arrived in Massachusetts with the weather in the northeast. “The weather was a big change, and I didn’t know I needed snow boots. I also learned if the wind blows, you must wear two jackets, and if the wind doesn’t blow and it is forty degrees, you just wear a hoodie and long sleeve shirt. I also had to get used to seeing salt on the sidewalk constantly,” Daughters said.
He also noticed a big difference in how the northeast is laid out compared to Texas. “It is very small, and I thought it was interesting how you can go from different states like Massachusetts to Rhode Island and Connecticut within hours of each other. In Texas, the closest state is Louisiana which is four hours, and Oklahoma six and a half hours at least. There is a lot of space in between cities in Texas,” Daughters mentioned.
Daughters talked about how his favorite memory at Dean so far is when his parents came up last year during the week of St Patrick’s Day to surprise him for his 21st birthday. “I got back from work, and my girlfriend was there following me telling me to quickly get to my room. I walked in, and my parents came out, and I was stunned,” Daughters explained.
If there was one thing Daughters could go back and change from his time at Dean, it would be to switch from a business management and sport management double major to a communications and sport management double major. He has been creating graphics for Dean athletics as he would like to be a social media coordinator.
With Senior Day approaching, Daughters is trying to stay positive as his family will be coming up to watch him play. “I think they will all be very positive. My parents and aunt and uncle are all coming up for it. And my aunt and uncle haven’t seen me play in person since my senior year of high school. It will be very surreal because while I do have two years of eligibility left, nothing is always guaranteed, so this could be my last year to play,” Daughters said.
“It is a bittersweet day. We are happy for the ability to be there and share in this time with him. But we are sad that this may be the culmination of a really fascinating journey. We are proud of his student-athlete accomplishments and look forward to what his future holds,” Daughters’ parents, Shelly and Floyd Daughters, said.
Daughters is currently looking at fourteen graduate programs to possibly pursue his two years of eligibility there. However, if he cannot play after Dean, he will try to be a graduate assistant on a basketball coaching staff as he might be interested in coaching.
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