Danny Gathings (born December 11, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent time playing in Finland and Sweden after completing his collegiate career in the United States at

High Point University High Point University is a private university in High Point, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The university was founded as High Point College in 1924, and it became High Point University in October 1991. HPU of ...

. In 2003–04, he was the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

player of the year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

College

Gathings starred at

Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy (WSPA) is a public school located in Forsyth County, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th- ...

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

before starting his collegiate career at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

in 2000–01. In his

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

season, Gathings played in 20 games and averaged 7.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals per contest. He decided to transfer at the end of the year, however, and chose

as his school of choice. Due to

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

transfer by-laws, Gathings

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

year in 2001–02. He made an immediate impact when he became eligible in 2002–03: he averaged 18.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Despite the

Panthers Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

finishing with a 7–20 overall record, Gathings was able to lead the Big South in both points and rebounds per game. The next season, his scoring (15.8) and steals (1.6) dipped, but his rebounding (8.0) increased. High Point had a 12-game turnaround and finished with a 19–11 record and Gathings was named the conference's player of the year. That season, he recorded 12

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

s, scored his 1,000th career point, and made two game-winning shots as time expired. Gathings led the Panthers to the championship game of the Big South tournament where they fell to

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

, 89–44. He was named the tournament's MVP despite being outplayed by Liberty freshman Larry Blair. Without being told to do so or it having been suggested to him, Gathings voluntarily handed the MVP trophy to Blair, the player he thought was most deserving, in a ceremony at Liberty's campus shortly thereafter. The NCAA named Gathings their 2003–04 Co-Sportsman of the Year for this benevolent act, which also made him the first athlete from High Point to be presented an NCAA-sponsored award. In Gathings'

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season, defenses were more focused on him and his numbers suffered. He averaged 12.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game, and the Panthers finished with a 13–18 overall record. Unlike his previous two seasons, he did not earn any All-Big South honors. Gathings concluded his collegiate career with net totals of 1,400 points, 662 rebounds, and 155 steals in 101 games played.

Professional

Gathings played several years of professional basketball following college. In Finland's

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

, he played for Aura Basket Turku in 2005–06. The next three seasons were spent in Sweden's

Basketligan Svenska Basketligan, or the Swedish Basketball League (SBL), is the premier league for professional basketball in Sweden. The league was originally established in 1992 as Basketligan and was known as that prior to the season of 2006–07, but whe ...

playing for Sallen Basket and

Uppsala Basket Uppsala Basket is a Swedish basketball club based in Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malm� ...

, respectively, before finishing his career off in Finland once again with

Korihait Korihait ( en, Basket Sharks) is a Finnish basketball team from Uusikaupunki. It was formed as Uudenkaupungin Urheilijat, shortly UU, in 1898 and has won one Korisliiga Finnish Championship (1990) and two Finnish Cups (1986, 1988). In 1994 UU had f ...

References

External links

Virginia Tech statistics
@ sports-reference.com

@ sports-reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Gathings, Danny 1980 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Finland American expatriate basketball people in Sweden Basketball players from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Forwards (basketball) High Point Panthers men's basketball players Uppsala Basket players Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball players American men's basketball players