Daniela Lopez lives in Barcelona, on the coast of Spain. She hadn’t really explored the United States before coming here to play basketball.
There was a bit of culture shock. To put it mildly.
“I’m from where I can really walk everywhere,” Lopez said. “If I want to go to, like, Barcelona downtown, I can just take the train. And I feel like here, you need the car for everything.”
Finding a place that fit, that felt like home in the U.S., also required a bit of a journey. Lopez initially committed to Xavier, where she played her first two seasons of college ball.
It took a couple of years, and a transfer, for her to find a place that felt like home. For Lopez, that place has been Johnson City and East Tennessee State.
Lopez entered the transfer portal at the close of the 2024-25 season after two years at Xavier. She had seen her role there reduce; after starting 26 of 28 games as a freshman in 2023-24, Lopez played almost exclusively off the bench in 2024-25.
She visited Johnson City and found everything she was looking for.
“So super welcoming,” Lopez said, when asked to describe what led her to join ETSU’s program. “I just felt like a family, this unity. And when I came on my visit, that was my only visit. I felt really good.”
It’s fair to say Lopez has fit well with the Bucs. In 2025-26, her first season at ETSU, she appeared in 26 games and made 22 starts. Lopez averaged 8.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists. She played a pivotal role in helping ETSU capture a share of the Southern Conference regular-season title, and made the second unit of the SoCon all-tournament team.
ETSU coach Brenda Mock Brown thinks Lopez is an almost ideal player for the positionless style of basketball that the Bucs prefer.
“She’s got a little flair. European players generally do that. If you watch European basketball, Dani is a reflection of that: a 3-point shooter, a finesse game in the paint. I would call her a really solid three level scorer.”
The big thing, for the Bucs coach, was getting Lopez to play defense with the requisite level of intensity.
“That was our rub when she got here and she would tell you that,” Mock Brown added. “We got past that and she defends now.”
Lopez talked about her goals for the coming season: “Trying to lead more, be more vocal, because it’s hard for me sometimes. Just having a great season as a team. I want to win the championship.”
And, go to the NCAA Tournament, a stage that no one on this team has ever experienced. ETSU was one of the favorites to win the SoCon tournament title last season, having shared the regular-season crown and finishing its schedule with 10 wins in the final 11 games.
“We do talk about it,” Lopez conceded, with “it” being the SoCon tournament.
Falling short to Samford, the eventual SoCon tournament champion, stung. Lopez describes herself as a highly competitive person. In basketball. In school. In video games. In anything.
“Our practices are energetic and aggressive,” Lopez said. “We do love to compete and we hate losing every time. We do like competition. You can see that.”
She spent this offseason, like the vast majority of basketball players at any level, fine-tuning her game. Lopez is a proven 3-point shooter. She’s canned 305 of them through her first three seasons of college ball, including a personal-best 123 made 3s last season at ETSU. More of a catch-and-release, quick shot artist to this point, Lopez shared she’s been working on her ability to hit pull-up jumpers since last season concluded.
Lopez shared her take on some of her teammates as the start of the 2026-27 season rapidly approaches. First up, freshman Alanna Tatum and Emmah McAmis, who, in combination with potential fifth year Anala Nelson, have been getting the work at point guard.
“Alanna and Emmah running the floor, they’re both freshman and sophomore, they have a lot of energy. They can run, stretch the floor. Super aggressive.”
Lopez also had high praise for Lucia France, a 6-2 sophomore who saw limited minutes last season but is now in the mix for a starting role in the frontcourt.
“She’s done a huge jump,” Lopez said. “Last year she was our third post. This year, as a sophomore, she’s going to start. She’s been really, really good. Really strong, working hard.”
Sydney-James Desroches, the Bucs’ fifth-year transfer from Eastern Illinois, also has stood out to Lopez.
“Super smart, high IQ,” Lopez said. “She’s been really good.”
After being one of three teams to share the SoCon regular-season title last season, ETSU was picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll for 2026-27. Consider that just more fuel for the fire for the highly competitive Lopez. She points out, accurately, that each of the top five in the poll received at least one first-place vote
“I think that it really shows how the SoCon is really competitive,” she said. “You never know who’s going to win a game.”
The recent shift by the NCAA to a 5-in-5 eligibility model gives Lopez an additional year after this season. That might change the future plans for Lopez, who is an international business major.
“For now. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I really don’t know. But yeah, after my college career, I would like to go back home and play professional basketball and also get my Master’s,” she said.
Editor’s Note: This article is also included in the I-81 Sports Buccaneer Basketball Blueprint, a free magazine on ETSU and Southern Conference hoops. We’ll have details on where you can find the magazine soon.