No LOI, but No Worries: Daniel Hamilton Will Be in Storrs in a Few Weeks

The final signing date for Daniel Hamilton’s national letter of intent has come and gone, and UConn has not received Hamilton’s LOI.

Fear not, Husky fans. He’s coming to Storrs. In fact, we can give you just about an exact date: June 20.

Hamilton said he hopes to be on campus around June 20 so that he can take part in two summer sessions. He’ll likely be helping out at Kevin Ollie’s camp, as well.

“I feel real good about it,” said Hamilton. “I’m excited to come there, ready to work. I know Kevin Ollie likes hard-working dudes. I’m hoping to do both sessions of summer school, get my body right and get that hard-working mentality.”

While questions abounded over whether Ollie might head to the NBA over the past couple of months, Hamilton was never too worried.

“He told me he was thinking about staying, that he was going to be there for us, he’s not going to leave the kids he recruited,” the 6-foot-7 wing said. “I’m happy he’s there for the kids and stayed loyal to them.”

Hamilton famously didn’t sign a national letter of intentafter committing to UConn, precisely for that reason: if Ollie bolted, he wanted the flexibility to be able to go to another school, if he wanted. He didn’t want to wind up in a similar situation as his older brother, Isaac, who wasn’t released from his LOI by Tim Floyd at UTEP and had to sit out last season. He’ll play at UCLA this upcoming season.

And if Ollie had gone to the NBA?

“I would have had to talk to my family and with the coaches at UConn and see what my next best move would have been,” said Hamilton, who has signed financial aid papers with the school.

The deadline for men’s basketball players to have signed their national letter of intent for this upcoming season was May 21.

Hamilton, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard, is rated as the No. 14 recruit in the nation by rivals.com. He visited UConn back on Jan. 18 (taking in the Huskies’ home loss to Louisville), and was back on the East Coast for the Jordan Brand Classic game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on April 18, starting for the West Team and scoring 10 points in a 158-147 loss.

Hamilton sees himself as either a shooting guard or small forward, but says he’ll “play wherever coach puts me at, come in and fit in wherever.”

He added that he’s been texting frequently with soon-to-be teammate Rodney Purvis, getting updates on campus life, and believes UConn could be poised to repeat as national champs next season.

“I think we’ll do pretty well,” he said. “I think we can make a good run at the tournament again. We’ve got a lot of versatile guys, with Rodney Purvis, Ryan Boatright coming back, and with me coming there. I think Amida Brimah will be ready to play. He’s gonna put on some weight and be ready, be more ready his second year. I think we’re gonna make another run at it.”