The NSU Demon basketball team made a long road trip out of their first away game tonight at Texas Tech. The team left Natchitoches Tuesday night and stayed in Dallas before practicing on the Stage at Texas-Arlington on Friday.
The team would travel after practice to Lubbock and are getting ready to play the Red Raiders tonight at the United Spirit Arena.
But as practice was getting going, I spotted a tall, lanky guy in a pair of Memphis Grizzlies game shorts helping the bus driver put water into the bus outside. Sure enough, it was former Demon great Trey Gilder.
Gilder is a native of the east Texas area and was invited to practice by assistant coach Jeff Moore. He walked in, surprising head coach Mike McConathy as well as several of his former teammates who are still playing for the team.
Trey was on the opening-game roster of the Memphis Grizzlies this year, playing in two games, logging five minutes, scoring two points, grabbing a rebound and nabbing a steal. He was released by the Grizzlies when Allen Iverson was ready to rejoin the team.
I got a chance to talk to Trey a bit and he said he has some feelers out for game action this year and was going to talk to his agents and handlers today to see where he might be able to latch on. Coach McConathy quizzed him on his workouts, if he was staying in shape for the chance to play again. He said he was keeping his workouts up and was ready if the call came in.
Trey looks exactly the same...tall, thin, reserved. Several players came over and hugged him, asked how he was doing, chatted him up. And he continues to be one of the more gadget-minded guys around, as he sported an iPhone, Blackberry and some sort of slide phone. Three phones, all on his waist, leading point guard Michael McConathy to dub him "Radio Shack" for all his gadgetry.
Well Radio Shack is doing well, and let's hope he lands on another NBA roster very soon.
-- Patrick Netherton - Demon Sports Network
