When asked to describe his combo guard from Raleigh, North Carolina, Charleston Southern men's basketball head coach Saah Nimley chose the word… "intelligent".
Daylen Berry is a quick-moving, hard-playing, intelligent member of the 2024-2025 Buccaneer men's basketball team, and although his first 20 games as a Buc deserve rightful recognition, his journey from Panther Creek High School to the Lowcountry is full of highs and lows.
"High school was a lot of fun" is how Berry remembers his time as a Catamount student-athlete. He recalled many faculty members, especially Head Coach Shawan Robinson, as huge pieces of the formula that afforded him such a noteworthy experience.
While playing for Panther Creek, Berry was connected with the CSU men's basketball recruiting coordinator of the time, now Head Coach Saah Nimley.
"I met Coach Nims my junior year (of high school) and just loved the way he held open conversations and kept it one-hundred."
Berry respected Coach Nimley's transparent communication style and his honesty to not "sell a dream" to the players, like Berry, that he was recruiting.
Out of high school, Berry elected to play in his home state of North Carolina when he signed his National Letter of Intent with the Charlotte 49ers. Berry cited proximity to home and a long time relationship with the 49er recruiting staff as some primary reasons why the green and white won his recruiting race back in 2021.
Year one at Charlotte was a redshirt season for Berry. In year two, Berry saw action in 21 different ball games for the 49ers, totaling 29 points, 19 rebounds, and 11 steals on the year. In the 2023 College Basketball Invitational (CBI), Charlotte won four straight tournament games and hoist the CBI trophy. In the tournament, Berry would nearly see his playing time nearly double from 7 to nearly 13 minutes per contest during the tournament.
After a solid year two, Berry would unfortunately not make the production jump that he and his coaches had hoped for in season number three. Berry acknowledged his struggle with confidence as a great lesson to learn, and that his coach's transparency during the process helped him formulate how he wanted to navigate the rest of his basketball journey. Berry made a very mature statement about what his athletic mentality became toward the final stages of his Charlotte 49er journey.
"I would not let myself be the reason I did not play moving forward."
That level of maturity and coachability is what landed Berry his next collegiate basketball opportunity. When asked about his time in the NCAA transfer portal, Berry picked a word that could also be used to describe his speed on the basketball court, "quick".
"I knew which conference I wanted to transition to, and Coach Nimley's staff was the most consistent."
Berry credited the relationship he built with Coach Nimley during his high school days as a large contributing factor that made his decision so speedy. The decision to offer Berry a scholarship in the portal was just as easy on Coach Nimley's end as he had nothing but positive remarks to make about Berry's character as a student-athlete.
"It has been great developing a relationship and getting to coach (Daylen). He is a very coachable kid that is about all the right things and is willing to do whatever he is asked to help the team… I can not ask for more."
When he first arrived on campus in the Holy City in the summer of 2024, Berry remembered being a shell of himself. He recognized many areas of growth when asked about his progression as a student-athlete here at Charleston Southern.
"(CSU) has been the perfect place to isolate and build life after basketball habits… I have taken a huge step forward academically, grown a lot closer to God, and learned a great deal about myself."
Not only has Berry grown immensely off of the court since joining the Buccaneers, but his on court development has been just as tremendous. He has impressed Buc Nation this season as he scored 18 points vs UTRGV, recorded a double-double (19 points and 12 rebounds) at LSU, led the team in scoring vs Furman (16), tallied 18 points at North Alabama, broke his career-high at home with 27 points vs Columbia International, reached double figures for the first time as a Big South Player at Longwood (18), scored 26 at home vs High Point, and dropped 23 in a triple-overtime thriller at Winthrop.
The man they call "DB" is far from being just a scorer. Berry has not fallen out of the top 60 in the country in total steals recorded this year. So far this season, CSU has stolen the basketball 98 times. 38 of those were recorded by Berry. Coach Nimley admired Berry's well-rounded arsenal when asked about the level of value the Charlotte transfer has brought to this year's roster.
"He affects the game in many different ways. He defends, he makes plays for himself, he makes plays for others, he rebounds the ball like a wing. Being such a well rounded basketball player has brought a lot of value to our team."
Coach Nimley knew the type of player he recruited had potential, but he still has had a phenomenal time watching Berry step into his increased role as a Buc.
"The biggest way I have seen (Daylen) grow would be with his confidence, not only on the court, but with who he is and what he brings to our program. When you deal with transfers, part of the transition is them finding what their new identity is around a new group of teammates, with new coaches, in a different system, in a different environment. Seeing him realize his role, embrace it, and thrive in that with confidence has made me happy as a coach."
Berry's role and estimated playing time was not set in stone when he was added to this year's roster, but even if he expected to play a lot, he probably did not expect to see his usage rate so far this season ranking at the top of the nation. Berry is currently 12th in the country in minutes per game (36.3). In a recent conference contest in Rock Hill, South Carolina against the Winthrop Eagles, Berry played for 53 minutes and 18 seconds of the 55-minute, triple overtime event. After a win against Radford later that same week, Coach Nimley was asked how valuable it is to have a player of Berry's caliber consistently available.
"He gives us everything… He puts his hard hat on, he goes to work, and then he takes the hard hat off when we are done and goes home. That's the type of player I like."
The former Panther Creek High School Catamount and Charlotte 49er transfer has proven to Buc Nation not only what he brings to the Buc Dome floor, but what he brings to the entire 300-acre campus of Charleston Southern University. Coach Nimley concisely summed up this idea in a statement that every member of the 2024-2025 men's basketball program agrees with,
"I really enjoy having him around."
