Hoop scoop

A handful of notes from the basketball courts ....

... Lady Demon guard Akilah Givens was part of the cast for the recent stage production, "Cane River Women," put on by the Cane River Repertory Theatre in Natchitoches. She is shown in the background of a photo that ran in the Natchitoches Times. Cane River Repertory Theatre offers professional outlets for NSU's students and faculty to work together in professional venues to prepare theatre majors for future opportunities.

Akilah can sing (often doing the National Anthem before home games), she can act, she can shoot, she makes good grades, can we buy stock?

... Keegan Bell, who we remember as a joyful preschooler bounding around Prather Coliseum when his dad Dan Bell was the Demons' basketball coach from 1988-94, is a very good college basketball player now. He played extensively as a true freshman at nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, but decided to transfer and has picked Tennessee-Chattanooga as his new college home. It's not a long drive from his hometown of Huntsville, Ala., where his dad was his high school coach ....

... Demons sophomore guard Logan McConathy is headed to Europe in a week on a missionary trip to Bulgaria ....

... Look for a new floor design at Prather Coliseum this season. The 3-point line for men's basketball moves back a foot, while the women's arc stays at 19-9. The Prather court was due for a refinishing anyway, so the basketball coaching staffs have been collaborating on design concepts. The players for both teams really like the unique flames leaping off the baselines, and the staple of the court design by former Lady Demon Nikki Vernon will be retained.