Corey Gray, biology freshman, has been playing basketball for about 13 years. He started playing for an Amateur Athletic Union team when he was in second grade.
Gray’s parents encouraged him to try a variety of sports, and basketball ended up being his favorite.

“My parents got me into basketball,” Gray said. “I tried a lot of different sports when I was younger, and I just fell in love with basketball.”

He then played for four years at Cedar Grove High School in Indianapolis.

At Cedar Grove, he left his footprints, earning a variety of awards. Gray was named Johnson County Player of the Year and All-Metro South Player of the Year. He was selected All-Conference and was the leading scorer in the league that year.

During his junior year of high school, Cedar Grove played against and beat future college and current NBA rookie Eric Gordon’s high school team. In his senior year, his team won his conference tournament. The conference gave Gray the opportunity to watch and play against future college and National Basketball Association stars.

“People who have played in the tournament are guys like (NBA stars) Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Eric Gordon and (former Duke basketball star) Josh McRoberts,” Gray said. “So that was pretty cool.”

Gray said that he enjoyed having the opportunity to play against players who have made it to the professional level of the NBA.

“It was awesome because playing against these guys only helped me get better, and it is also fun to tell my friends or even my kids later on that I got to play those guys,” he said.
Gray noticed the difference between high school and the college level once he arrived at Loyola. The athletic ability of the players improved, and the players were much bigger.

“Everyone is a lot bigger, faster, stronger than they were in high school, so it’s tough,” Gray said.

Gray is averaging 10 points a game in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics play. He is also shooting 60 percent from the field, and he is hitting 50 percent of his three-point shots.

As for his performance on the court, Gray believes he still has a lot to learn.

“I think I’ve been doing pretty well, I’ve been contributing, coming off the bench, but I still have a lot to learn. I talk to the older players, they’ll tell you what to do. Torry (Beaulieu, history junior) does a great job with trying to talk to me and tell me what we are running and stuff. It’s nice to have upperclassmen that care and want to share my passion and how to play and stuff to expect in college basketball.”

He believes the team is just going to get better and better as the season goes along. The team is currently 3-0, undefeated in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. Gray has one goal that he wants to accomplish in his four years here as a player on the Wolfpack.

Michael Dewey can be reached at [email protected].