The Practice Players Podcast

The Practice Players Podcast features three life-long friends and former high school teammates who are now heavily involved in the college basketball world.
Each episode will feature a guest-star from within the basketball world. They will discuss their path, experiences, knowledge, and answer various questions.
Each episode will also feature current coverage on the latest news, rumors, trends, and hot-topics within college basketball.
The Practice Players (Instagram Handles Below):
Daniel Allen @daniel.allen22 
Oregon Men's Basketball Manager
David Cantor @dave.diddy 
The Ohio State Men's Basketball Manager 
Nick Walters @n14k_ 
UNLV Men's Basketball Walk-On

A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Rivaldo is in his second season at Oregon. As a Junior in 2021-22, he played in all 35 games for the Ducks. Scored a season-high 13 points in his first start of the season in a NIT round one win over Utah State. Prior to Oregon, Rivaldo spent two seasons at South Plains College (NJCAA). As a freshman in 2019-20, he played in 30 games and averaged 15.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. Additionally, he shot 42.0 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from three. As a sophomore at South Plains in 2020-21, he was named a NJCAA first-team all-American and the Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) player of the year. He averaged 15.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, shot 45.5 percent from the floor and 34.5 percent from three-point range. Rivaldo lead South Plains to a share of the WJCAC title and helped the Texans to an appearance in the Elite Eight of the NJCAA Men's Basketball National Tournament.

 

Colby joined the Ohio State Men’s Basketball team as a preferred walk-on freshman for the 2022-23 season, after being recruited by assistant coach Mike Netti. He logged his first collegiate minutes on November 11th, 2022 versus Robert Morris University. Prior to Ohio State, Colby spent a post grad year at high school basketball powerhouse IMG Academy in Florida. A native of Houston, Texas, Colby is a die-hard Kobe Bryant fan.

In high school, Jordan was named Mr. Basketball by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association in 2018 and was a unanimous selection to all-state first team. He finished his high school career as the state’s sixth all-time leading scorer with 2,442 points, averaging 26.7 points and 7.8 assists as a senior. He was a 4-star recruit and a top 90 player in his class. He spent 2018 to 2021 playing at West Virginia, where he played in 94 games and started in 49 of them. At West Virginia, Jordan was a 2x Academic All Big-12 First Team player, and lead WVU in assists as a freshman. He transferred to UNLV for the 2021-22 season, and led the team in assists at 4.8 per game (also led the Mountain West in assist/turnover ratio (3.4). For the 2022-23 season, Jordan is averaging 5.9 points per game at the time of this episode recording. 

Aside from basketball Jordan has amassed a large social media following, with over 500,000 followers across all his platforms, making him one of the most popular collegiate basketball players. 

Niles began his playing career at Oral Roberts University in 2009. With the Golden Eagles, he was a four-year starter and appeared in the most games in program history. Niles finished his career eighth on the program's all-time scoring list and third on the three-point field goals made list. As a freshman, earned All-America honors and set the freshman single-game scoring record with 39 points. In addition to his All-America nod, Niles earned NABC First Team All-District, First Team All-Southland, Honorable Mention All-Summit, Summit League All-Newcomer, and several Player of the Week accolades over his career. After wrapping up his collegiate career, Niles played professionally overseas for five years. He played for: Poiters and Boulonge in France, Massagno in Switzerland, OKC Blue in the NBA G-League, Yokohama in Japan, and Imola in Italy. Niles served as a graduate assistant for the Oregon Men's Basketball Team from 2020-22. While with the Ducks, Niles helped with the day-to-day operations, travel arrangements, and film. Niles joined the Omaha men's basketball staff as an assistant coach in April 2022.
 

Nate is a student-manager for the Youngstown State University Men’s Basketball team. He coached on the 3SSB circuit and will be coaching on the Nike EYBL circuit this year. He plans on being a graduate assistant after he graduates from Youngstown State and wants to pursue coaching collegiate basketball for his career.

Justin is entering his 4th season playing college basketball. He spent his first two seasons (2019-2021) playing for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. His freshman season at Hawaii (2019-2020) he played in 27 games with 9 starts, averaging 8.8 points per game. During his sophomore season at Hawaii (2020-21), he led the Rainbow Warriors in scoring at 12.3 points per game and earned All-Big West honorable mention honors. Additionally, he served as team co-captain and started every single game he appeared in. After his sophomore campaign, he transferred to UNLV for the 2021-22 season. Webster averaged 5.3 points per game and shot 21 of 22 from the free throw line (95.5%), while also earning academic All-Mountain West honors. Currently in his senior season, Webster is averaging 7.7 points per game, shooting 46.7% from three, and has been an integral part of UNLV having their best start in over 30 seasons. From Dallas, Texas, Justin enjoys sneakers, fashion, and being a positive voice in the locker-room. 

Peter is entering his 7th season with the Valparaiso University Men’s Basketball program. He served as a student manager from 2016-2019. From 2019-2021, he served as a graduate assistant on Valpo’s staff and was one of only 22 individuals to be named to the TopConnect Graduate Assistant Leadership Academy in December 2020. Peter is currently serving as the Director of Basketball Operations for Valpo. He handles various tasks such as developing opponent scouting reports, organizing team travel, overseeing players academic development, organizing daily team scheduling, and much more. 

Brennan is from De Beque, Colorado and played high school basketball at Wasatch Academy (Utah). At Wasatch, he become an internet sensation after a dunk of his went viral on the popular social media account BallIsLife. He spent the 2021-22 season playing for Northwest Florida State College (JUCO), where he led his team to a NJCAA national championship averaging 11.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 33 games. Currently, he is a sophomore on the Oregon Men's Basketball team. Through his 6 games played (4 starts) for the Ducks this season, Brennan is averaging 8.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 32.3 minutes per game.

Tyler has a vast amount of basketball experience at such a young age and has worked at every level from high school to the high major Division 1 level. He started writing for ButlerHoops.com at age 13, where he covered virtually anything related to Butler Men's Basketball. From 2016-2018, he was a student assistant at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. From 2018-2022 he was a student manager at The Ohio State University. His senior year at OSU he was head manager, responsible for a number of tasks including game reports, practice set up, live-coding, and overseeing a group of 15 student managers. Currently, Tyler is in his first season as a Graduate Assistant for the Illinois State Men's Basketball team.