Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Nebraska In Review
3/7/2016 9:28:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
This was Senior Day, a day filled with memories and swelling emotions and cheers of appreciation. There were hugs exchanged and highlight reels unfurled and framed jerseys presented during a six-minute ceremony, and all during those festivities Welsh-Ryan was aglow with warmth and good cheer.
Alex Olah bathed in it, and this was understandable. For here he was accompanied not only by his host family from Indiana, which had looked over him since he had come to the States six years ago, but also by his mom, dad and brother from Romania, who would be watching him play live for the first time since he had left home as a 16-year old. "Put yourself in his shoes," Chris Collins would later say of him. "They've never been to the United States, they get here two days ago -- he's an emotional guy, he's a loving guy. I just couldn't imagine myself what I would feel like. How anxious, how nervous, how excited, all those things."
Tre Demps too was imbued with the swirling currents of the moment, and this was also understandable. For among those accompanying him here were his dad, Dell, himself a former player who had helped mold his son, and his pregnant wife, Heather, whose due date was just eight days away. "It's been a lot of different emotions," he had said days earlier when asked about approaching fatherhood. "It's been exciting. It's been stressful at times. It's fun. You know that you're ending a season of life and you're going to start a new one soon. So right now I'm just trying to focus as much as I can on finishing this season of life the right way -- in the classroom, on the court and at home."
••••••••••
This was Senior Day, a day filled with memories and swelling emotions and cheers of appreciation. There were hugs exchanged and highlight reels unfurled and framed jerseys presented during a six-minute ceremony that concluded at 12:52, just 14 minutes before the 'Cats would tip against Nebraska. "I was worried to death, man," Collins would later say, worried that the moment would overwhelm his two seniors.
"It was tough," Demps would admit minutes later. "But you just try to make it as normal as possible, just stick to your routine, don't do anything out of character. That was the biggest thing I was trying to do."
"I don't know how I kept it in. It was really emotional," echoed Olah. "I tried not to think about it all day. There were times when I thought, 'Man, I'm going to walk on the court with my family.' Then I was, 'No, no. Don't think about it.' I would tear up and stuff. I had to put the game before all the emotions. I knew we had to win this game to make history."
••••••••••
This was Senior Day, a day filled with memories and swelling emotions and cheers of appreciation. There were hugs exchanged and highlight reels unfurled and framed jerseys presented during a six-minute ceremony, and this is why Collins would later say, "I thought it was going to have to be our young guys (who carried us early) because of the emotions. But it flipped. The guys who got us off to a great start were our two older guys."
The two older guys indeed keyed the 'Cats 11-point win over the Huskers, here exhibiting poise and grace and unflappability in a cauldron of emotions. Demps dropped their first field goal of this game, a three from the left elbow at 17:00 off an Olah assist. Olah, in these first three minutes, also pulled down a pair of rebounds, and then hit two foul shots at 16:21.
At 12:47, after the Huskers had taken a two-point lead, Demps hit another three to put the 'Cats back up, and then he converted a fast break layup off an outlet from Olah. Now, in quick succession, Olah dropped a short hook from the right baseline and Demps dropped a floater from the paint, and with that their team was up seven with 10 minutes gone.
The 'Cats would nurse this lead through the next 30 minutes, never letting it dip below six, and when the Huskers did cut it to that with 4:03 remaining, Olah was there to answer with an 18-foot jump shot 63 second later. He, at the end, would have a game-high 19 points and a game-high eight rebounds in just 25 minutes, and right behind him was Demps, who chipped in 17. "For him to come out and go 19 and eight, absolutely unbelievable," Collins would later say of his center.
"I didn't expect that at all. I expected him to be really emotional and for us to have to uplift him early because he was going to be too excited. It was the opposite. He had great composure. He and Tre got us off to that great start. To play as well as those two kids did-- I can't say enough about Tre and Alex. I love those two guys. To me, they're part of a core that will always be special to me. When I first came in here as a rookie coach who'd never called a time out, never made a sub, for those guys along with JerShon Cobb and Drew Crawford and Sanjay (Lumpkin), for those guys as a core to really believe in me gave me a lot of inspiration.
"I'm just so happy for them, that they were able to play like this on Senior Night in front of their families, in front of our fans."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
This was Senior Day, a day filled with memories and swelling emotions and cheers of appreciation. There were hugs exchanged and highlight reels unfurled and framed jerseys presented during a six-minute ceremony, and all during those festivities Welsh-Ryan was aglow with warmth and good cheer.
Alex Olah bathed in it, and this was understandable. For here he was accompanied not only by his host family from Indiana, which had looked over him since he had come to the States six years ago, but also by his mom, dad and brother from Romania, who would be watching him play live for the first time since he had left home as a 16-year old. "Put yourself in his shoes," Chris Collins would later say of him. "They've never been to the United States, they get here two days ago -- he's an emotional guy, he's a loving guy. I just couldn't imagine myself what I would feel like. How anxious, how nervous, how excited, all those things."
Tre Demps too was imbued with the swirling currents of the moment, and this was also understandable. For among those accompanying him here were his dad, Dell, himself a former player who had helped mold his son, and his pregnant wife, Heather, whose due date was just eight days away. "It's been a lot of different emotions," he had said days earlier when asked about approaching fatherhood. "It's been exciting. It's been stressful at times. It's fun. You know that you're ending a season of life and you're going to start a new one soon. So right now I'm just trying to focus as much as I can on finishing this season of life the right way -- in the classroom, on the court and at home."
••••••••••
This was Senior Day, a day filled with memories and swelling emotions and cheers of appreciation. There were hugs exchanged and highlight reels unfurled and framed jerseys presented during a six-minute ceremony that concluded at 12:52, just 14 minutes before the 'Cats would tip against Nebraska. "I was worried to death, man," Collins would later say, worried that the moment would overwhelm his two seniors.
"It was tough," Demps would admit minutes later. "But you just try to make it as normal as possible, just stick to your routine, don't do anything out of character. That was the biggest thing I was trying to do."
"I don't know how I kept it in. It was really emotional," echoed Olah. "I tried not to think about it all day. There were times when I thought, 'Man, I'm going to walk on the court with my family.' Then I was, 'No, no. Don't think about it.' I would tear up and stuff. I had to put the game before all the emotions. I knew we had to win this game to make history."
••••••••••
This was Senior Day, a day filled with memories and swelling emotions and cheers of appreciation. There were hugs exchanged and highlight reels unfurled and framed jerseys presented during a six-minute ceremony, and this is why Collins would later say, "I thought it was going to have to be our young guys (who carried us early) because of the emotions. But it flipped. The guys who got us off to a great start were our two older guys."
The two older guys indeed keyed the 'Cats 11-point win over the Huskers, here exhibiting poise and grace and unflappability in a cauldron of emotions. Demps dropped their first field goal of this game, a three from the left elbow at 17:00 off an Olah assist. Olah, in these first three minutes, also pulled down a pair of rebounds, and then hit two foul shots at 16:21.
At 12:47, after the Huskers had taken a two-point lead, Demps hit another three to put the 'Cats back up, and then he converted a fast break layup off an outlet from Olah. Now, in quick succession, Olah dropped a short hook from the right baseline and Demps dropped a floater from the paint, and with that their team was up seven with 10 minutes gone.
The 'Cats would nurse this lead through the next 30 minutes, never letting it dip below six, and when the Huskers did cut it to that with 4:03 remaining, Olah was there to answer with an 18-foot jump shot 63 second later. He, at the end, would have a game-high 19 points and a game-high eight rebounds in just 25 minutes, and right behind him was Demps, who chipped in 17. "For him to come out and go 19 and eight, absolutely unbelievable," Collins would later say of his center.
"I didn't expect that at all. I expected him to be really emotional and for us to have to uplift him early because he was going to be too excited. It was the opposite. He had great composure. He and Tre got us off to that great start. To play as well as those two kids did-- I can't say enough about Tre and Alex. I love those two guys. To me, they're part of a core that will always be special to me. When I first came in here as a rookie coach who'd never called a time out, never made a sub, for those guys along with JerShon Cobb and Drew Crawford and Sanjay (Lumpkin), for those guys as a core to really believe in me gave me a lot of inspiration.
"I'm just so happy for them, that they were able to play like this on Senior Night in front of their families, in front of our fans."
••••••
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