By Ryan Honey
Now that the Delaware Men’s Basketball program has had some time to process their 2018-19 season coming to a close, the seniors who are leaving can now reflect on their time as members of the Blue Hen squad.
Among those seniors is guard Darian Bryant.
Bryant is a redshirt senior from Bowie, MD and a product of St. John’s College HS in Washington, D.C. Coming off the bench for UD this past season, Bryant proved to be an effective shooter for the Blue Hens. He shot 44% from the field, along with shooting 33% from beyond the three-point arc. Bryant also averaged 6.5 points per game, 3.1 rebounds per game as well as 2.1 assists per game.
Before Bryant played here at Delaware, he was a member of the George Washington University Men’s Basketball program. He transferred to UD during the summer of 2015 and had some things to say about what the overall transition was like as a transfer.
“It was a tough transition especially at a young age, I went through a lot of troubles mentally and physically of where I wanted to be and where I wanted to be welcomed at,” Bryant said. “Here at Delaware under [former head coach] Monte Ross and under Coach Martin [Ingelsby] I felt like I was really wanted as a player and as a person.”
Bryant also touched upon the comparison between the two programs and how they differ from one another.
“The difference between both programs is that here they really developed me as a person for life and they took me under their wing like I was their son,” Bryant stated. “They made me responsible as a young man.”
Since the Blue Hens were eliminated from the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament after a loss to the Hofstra Pride in March, Bryant has also had time to reflect on his experience as a Blue Hen. One of the main aspects he touches upon is what coach Ingelsby has done for the program as a whole.
“Over the last three seasons he’s done a lot for us,” Bryant said. “He’s slowly turned this program around and I’m happy about the progress that we’re slowly taking and that we’ve made over the past three years. We’ve had some great wins and we’ve had some pretty good seasons.”
Since Ingelsby took over as the head coach prior to the 2016-17 season, the Blue Hens have totaled 13, 14 and 17 wins respectively in three seasons. It’s clear Ingelsby along with the entire program has taken steps in the right direction, and Bryant acknowledged that.
“We’re slowly progressing each season,” Bryant said. “Building off of what we’ve done over the past three years is really helpful for [Ingelsby] and to his staff. Being that it’s his first three years as a head coach, he’s done a pretty good job of keeping the team together and finding ways to win and finding ways to just build the program overall.”
When your collegiate career is over, it can be a sad experience. However, there are always memories to look back on, and Bryant surely reflects on his favorite memories of being a part of this great program.
“The away trips we have as a team and being in the hotel and having dinner with the team and just always being together and always laughing and joking with each other is probably my favorite memory outside of actually playing with them on the court,” Bryant noted.
Now that spring break has concluded, the Blue Hens are back to work with pickup games and team lifts during the week. While that’s going on, the coaching staff will work on recruiting as well as the preparation for the upcoming season this fall.