March 07--One has a baby on the way, due in a week. The other's parents, along with his younger brother, made their way more than 5,000 miles from Romania to see him play a game in the United States for the first time since he moved here six years ago.
Welsh-Ryan Arena was the scene of plenty of emotion on senior day Sunday, when Tre Demps, the father-to-be, and Alex Olah, the 7-foot center from an ocean away, helped Northwestern to a 65-54 victory against Nebraska.
Olah left quite a first impression on his parents and brother, and quite a final impression in his last game in Evanston, by corralling game highs in points (19) and rebounds (eight).
"I tried not to think about it all day," Olah said of playing in front of father Lucian, mother Adriana and brother Sebastian. "I'm so proud they could make it and watch me play for the final time here."
Demps, also playing in front of his family and his wife, Heather, who is due March 14, contributed 17 points.
"I couldn't imagine what I would feel like -- how anxious, how nervous, how excited," Northwestern coach Chris Collins said of Olah. "For him to go for 19 and eight, absolutely unbelievable. I expected him to be really emotional, us to kind of have to uplift him early. It was the opposite."
Emotion aside, the victory against Nebraska (14-17, 6-12 Big Ten), Northwestern's third in a row, also was brought to you by the numbers 20 and nine.
Northwestern walked away with its 20th win, the most in program history during a regular season and tied for most overall with the 2009-10 and 2010-11 teams, which needed wins in the postseason to reach that mark.
Consequently, the Wildcats (20-11, 8-10) secured a No. 9 seed and said hello to a bye in this week's Big Ten tournament, which begins for them Thursday against Michigan at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
"There were a number of days I had the number 20 on my front and back (as a player)," Collins said. "The number is very special to me."
So, too, are Olah and Demps, Collins said.
Demps lived up to his first name by making his first two 3-point attempts. When he wasn't persuading the ball and the basket to make acquaintance from five feet behind the 3-point line, the guard was making the ball ballet dance through the net with floaters from five feet away.
"(Olah) and Tre got us off to a great start," Collins said. "Tre's wife is due any day. I can't imagine having to get it all together and play as well as those two kids did."
Northwestern's lead yo-yoed between 20 late in the first half to six late in the second. But thanks to a Demps-fueled 13-0 run in the first, during which he scored seven points, the Wildcats had some cushion.
The Big Ten tournament is next, though, and the long shot of winning it likely is the Wildcats' only prayer of earning the program's first bid to the NCAA tournament.
"There's been growing pains, but I think this program is in a really good place," Demps said.
pskrbina@tribpub.com
