The many roles of Darnell Gant

Darnell Gant's role on the Washington Huskies basketball team is to come off of the bench and be active. Sometimes. He's almost like a seventh starter for head coach Lorenzo Romar. If Gant was called on to fill a starter's role, he could, already having made 70 career starts, including 14 this season. Off of the court, he has the capacity to take on other roles as well. Gant, a Crenshaw High grad, manned the role of musician at church growing up in Los Angeles, playing the piano, organ, and drums. He's a drama major, who last spring took on the role of Starveling in the university's production of "Midsummer Night's Dream." He tackled it with the same ferocity he does when he takes to the hardwood. "I felt like it was kind of the same," said Gant comparing the preparation of acting to basketball. "For acting I felt it was just going over your lines. I started to get my fellow actors to start warming up for the play just like I warm up for a game get them hyped and everything. It was fun. You had different types of people from school that were in the play." That was Gant's acting debut but it's something he can see himself doing in the future, only bigger and better. Gant has aspirations to one day make it on the big screen. "I can see myself doing movies. That's probably the last thing that I would want to (accomplish). When it comes to acting, I can do a good job. I can make people laugh. I do a variety of different things," said Gant. On the floor, he makes up half of one of the best bench tandems in the conference with guard C.J. Wilcox. Gant's averaging 7.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 23.2 minutes this season. He's having a career year as a senior while averaging career highs in points, rebounds, field goal percentage, and minutes through the Huskies' first 21 games. "(He's) a key guy and has been a great kid for them. He's done a nice job for them throughout his career and (he's) very athletic," said UCLA head coach Ben Howland. The 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward is a player UCLA (12-9, 5-4 Pac-12) will have to circle on the scouting report in preparation for Thursday's game at Washington (14-7, 7-2) at 6 p.m. Gant chose to leave Los Angeles and attend school in the Pacific Northwest because "it just seemed like it was a good fit for me." Gant has fit in just fine, no matter which role he's called on to do.