Daniel Gilbert is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. Standing at 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), he played professionally in four different countries. Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, on February 28, 1983, Gilbert attended the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

, and in his senior year was part of the memorable

Buffalo Bulls The Buffalo Bulls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University at Buffalo (UB) in Buffalo, New York. The Bulls compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of Mid-Am ...

team that, led by fellow guard

Turner Battle Turner Battle (born January 11, 1983) is an American former basketball point guard for the University at Buffalo Bulls men's basketball team from 2001 to 2005. Battle is credited with fueling the resurgence of the Bulls men's basketball program, ...

, went on an improbable run to the Mid-American Conference Championship, beating

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pen ...

in the semi-finals at the Gund Arena in Cleveland. In the MAC final, the Bulls lost in

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Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

on a tip-in by Leon Williams with 0.5 seconds remaining, thus, the Bulls failed to clinch the automatic bid to the

2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2005 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 15, 2005, and ended with the championsh ...

. Gilbert, considered to be one of the best defenders to ever don a Bulls' jersey, averaged 7.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.8 steals his senior season while also setting the school record for games played in a career (118). Upon graduating in 2005, he went on to sign a professional contract with

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second division team FC Schalke. When interviewed after his signing, Gilbert said "I am excited about the opportunity to play professionally, I knew that I would play overseas some day, I am just surprised that it happened so fast." In his one season in Germany, Gilbert averaged 18 points per game, while recording his season-high 33 points in a 92–79 home victory over Rhöndorf. For the 2006–07 season, Gilbert made the move to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where he signed for Paul James's

Guildford Heat The Surrey Scorchers are an English professional basketball team based in Guildford, Surrey, that compete in the British Basketball League. The team was established in 2005 as the Guildford Heat by fans of former British Basketball League te ...

side, who were only in their second year of existence. A major coup for the side, Gilbert became a pivotal player in leading the club to its first ever BBL title. He averaged an impressive 16.9 points in 33.9 minutes per game. He returned for a second season to lead the Heat into the ULEB Cup, the club's debut in European competition. He aided the team to their first trophy of the season, picking up the

BBL Cup Winners' Cup The Cup Winners' Cup was a peripheral cup competition of the British Basketball League. It was a pre-season tournament competed over two legs, one home and one away, between the winners of BBL Cup and BBL Trophy from the previous season. Each leg w ...

after defeating

Plymouth Raiders The Plymouth Raiders was a professional basketball team based in Plymouth, England. The team competed in the British Basketball League, the country's premier basketball competition. The club was founded in 1983 through a merger between two lo ...

. In 2008, he signed for French team

Boulazac Basket Dordogne Boulazac Basket Dordogne, also known as BBD or simply Boulazac, is a French professional basketball club, based in Boulazac. The team currently plays in the LNB Pro A currently named Jeep Elite for sponsoring reason, the first level of basketball ...

but after one year returned to Britain to play under Coach James once again for the

Worcester Wolves The Worcester Wolves are a basketball club in Worcester, England, Worcester, England. The team plays in the National Basketball League (England), NBL Division 2, the third tier of British basketball. The club was formed in 2000, and from 2006 u ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Daniel 1983 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in the United Kingdom American expatriate basketball people in Uruguay American men's basketball players Basketball players from Detroit Buffalo Bulls men's basketball players FC Schalke 04 Basketball players Surrey Scorchers players Worcester Wolves players Guards (basketball) Cass Technical High School alumni