Lou Demuth (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg) adores Luxembourg's national anthem, "Ons Heemecht."
Each summer since he was 14, the native Luxembourger has represented his country, playing for the national basketball team. Prior to games, hearing the anthem runs chills up the seven-footer's lengthy spine.
"You're embodying your people," Demuth, now 20, said. "Being from a small village, when we play the games, they are all there. Everyone is coming to see their country play. It's something special."
Demuth hails from the town of Oberdonven, which features a population of under 200. His first athletic escapade was table tennis, but as Demuth recalled, "the table didn't grow with me."
So as a 6-foot-3 12-year-old, Demuth plunged into basketball — and it stuck. At 15, he moved to Nancy, France, an hour away from home, to play club ball. The next year, Demuth set off for Seville, Spain. He speaks five languages: English, Spanish, French, German and his native Luxembourgish.
Now, Demuth has kickstarted the American chapter of his story. He'll suit up for the Chicago State men's basketball team on November 25.
His new teammates have dubbed Demuth "Big Lou," and head coach
Lance Irvin lauds the skillset, versatility and sheer size the center brings to his team. At 7-feet, 235 pounds, Demuth is spry. He lost 30 pounds during the offseason and can ballhandle effectively, pass with precision and shoot from deep.
"Basically like Porzingis," Demuth said with a giggle.
The reference to Dallas Mavericks forward Kristaps Porzingis is abt, actually. Porzingis played for Baloncesto Sevilla in Spain a year before Demuth joined the squad. Demuth even lived in the same apartment that the 2018 NBA All-Star had once occupied.
"Everyone was talking about him," Demuth said. "People would see that I'm tall and go, 'Porzingis, Porzingis.' I used to be compared to Marc Gasol, actually. I was much bigger then. I was fat, I'm not gonna lie.
"I feel a lot quicker now. There's no comparison to before. I have to re-learn how to play."
Not only is Demuth lighter and shiftier now, but he must adjust from the crafty European style of play to a more brutish American basketball landscape.
"American-style basketball is more physical and rough, but it's not as skilled as in Europe," Demuth said. "It's a different mentality. In Europe, people tell their opponent, 'Good move.' Here, if someone does a good move on you, the next thing you try to do is go back at him. It's not, 'Good job. Now I'll show you what I can do.'"
Now settled in at Chicago State, Demuth is eager to play after a seemingly everlasting break. But he misses his family. When he took off for France and Spain as a teen, Demuth was mere hours away from home.
Now?
"I'm an ocean away," Demuth said. "And now that I'm older, it feels hard to go away. I'm conscious now of what's going on. Before, I was just like, 'I'm going to play basketball.' Now, I'm thinking about stuff and it's tougher."
Demuth talks to his mother every day. The family plans on following along from afar — Cougars fans from 4,200 miles away.
Demuth's new Chicago State family jokingly ribs him for his favorite foods from back home: Snails, squid and Kniddelen, which he describes as a flour dumpling without the filling.
"If I hadn't grown up around snails, I would be disgusted, too," Demuth said. "But the stuff people eat here is crazy because of how it's put together. The other day, I had a pasta pizza, which was like a pasta with pizza sauce, meatballs and pepperoni in it. I know pasta, and I know pizza, but not together. That was strange to me."
Cuisine aside, "Big Lou" voyaged to Chicago to compete.
"We will win games," Demuth said. "That was the thing for me. I said, 'If I go there, we will win games.' That's my ambition."
