Though he is just a freshman, Tre Demps, a 6’2’’ guard from San Antonio, will have big shoes to fill at the guard position following the departure of Juice Thompson. Demps is one of three freshmen on the Northwestern roster this season, along with forward Mike Turner and guard Dave Sobolewski. Following a big performance at the Lebron James Skills Academy (Jay Bilas of ESPN named Demps one of the top players at the camp), Demps chose the ‘Cats over Minnesota. Demps, who averaged 16.5 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.5 rebounds a game for Ronald Reagan High School, captained his high school team, leading the Rattlers to a 30-6 record. He is the son of current New Orleans Hornets General Manager Dell Demps, who played three seasons in the NBA.
You injured your shoulder in August. How are you feeling?
I feel great. For about a few weeks now, I’ve been about 100 percent, and you know, I’m just kind of learning the offense and having a great time out here.
How’s the offense going? How are you doing under Coach Carmody?
I’m starting to pick up the man-to-man stuff. It’s really starting to come together. It’s like a football-style offense where you read other guys. And so now we’re starting to work on the zone offense a little bit and working with that.
Has it been a tough transition from high school where it was a little more of a simple system going into a little bit more of a complex system?
Yeah, definitely. You have to be thinking at all times. If you don’t think, you’re going to mess up. And so you always have to be alert and look at what your teammates are doing.
You had a couple choices for schools. Why NU?
I just thought it was the perfect place for me. First of all, socially, I’m a low-key kind of person [and] there’s not a lot of students here. Basketball-wise and school-wise I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to get a great education and help this team any way I can to get to the next level.
I assume you know Northwestern has never made the tournament.
Right.
Did that factor into your decision at all?
Yeah, definitely. Like I said, it’d be great to just be a part of something that’s never happened before. When you look back 30 years from now and say you were the first team to go to the tournament, that’s second to none.
So as a freshman sometimes the role with the team is a little unclear. What do you see as your role this year?
I think, honestly everybody’s going to figure that out once we start playing games. You know, we’re all still trying to learn the offense a little bit more. There’s still some stuff. The 1-3-1 all that kind of stuff that we’re putting in. And I think, honestly we’ll see as the season goes along what everybody’s role is going to be.
Your father (Dell Demps), GM of the Hornets, played in the NBA for 3 years. How has he helped you develop as a player?
He’s like the mastermind behind my game. He constructed me as a player and he’s been there through the ups and the downs. He’s been everything for me, not just in basketball but in life too.
Thoughts on the NBA season potentially not happening this year?
I just hope it happens. I love watching NBA games. I love watching all the points guards, everybody. It’s such an elite level and it’s fun to watch those guys compete.
Who’s your favorite Hornets’ player?
Definitely Chris Paul. I always loved Chris Paul.
Just kind of wrapping up here, I saw your anticipated major is journalism. Is that correct?
Actually, I’m probably going to switch to creative writing. You know, I’ve kind of seeing that journalism is not quite what I want to do – I want to do more on paper stuff, instead of in front of camera stuff, interviewing and all that, so probably creative writing.
The athletic department held a vote about the Welsh-Ryan court design this year. One of the options was an entirely purple court, similar to Boise State’s football field being entirely blue. What would you think of a purple court?
I thought it would have been unique, but this [other new] court is pretty sweet too. I think it’s going to look great on TV and I think everybody can’t wait to play on it.