Wednesday night at Chick Evans Field House, 22 NIU students were hoping to make their dream come true. If any of them are successful, it will mean months of long hours, hard work and dedication as members of the NIU basketball team.

Huskie head coach Jim Molinari and his staff watched the hopefuls go through a series of drills and full-court games in hopes of seeing a potential contributor to the Huskie’s basketball squad.

“We want to look to see what’s available,” said Molinari. “To see if there’s a possibility of maybe finding someone who could help our basketball team. If I get excited by one or two maybe we’ll invite them back and let them work out and practice with the team.”

The participants at the tryout were seemingly not discouraged by the long odds of even one of them making the squad.

“I really appreciate these guy’s efforts, to come down here and work at it and give it a try, that’s all you can ask of them,” said Molinari. “But if there’s nobody we think can help us we’re not going to waste our and their time because there’s no promise of a scholarship or aid.”

Among the hopefuls was Gregory Morris who played varsity basketball at Bremen High School and who hopes to send a message back to the coaches and scouts who overlooked him in his hometown.

“My high school coach never gave me a chance to play so I thought that if I worked hard enough I could prove to everybody that I could play Division I basketball,” Morris said. “Tonight I’m going to go home and pray to God that I made the team, like I’ve been doing all along.”

The tryout for Morris was the culmination of a long period of intense work aimed at improving his basketball skills.

“I practiced everyday. I went to the Rec Center and played every day that I could,” said Morris. “Today I tried to show Coach Molinari that I love to hustle and that besides point- guard I could play off-guard too.”

Morris has recently played with some members of the NIU team to help his skills and feels confident he can play on their level.

“I felt intimidated at first, but after a while I got comfortable and I turned up my play a notch. Everybody on the team has given me encouragement. I went to the lockeroom before tryouts and shook hands with every one of them and they wished me luck.”

Morris, who hopes to become an optometrist, is optimistic about his chances. “I think I made the team,” he said, but if he doesn’t?

“I’m going to cry, because I worked too hard and I put too much effort through the summer to make the team. But I’m going to continue to work hard and, if I have to, I’ll come back next year.”