'Wired' Sharp leads Demons into back half of series with Texas A&M-Commerce

NATCHITOCHES, La. – Watching former Charleston High School standout DeMarcus Sharp pilot the Northwestern State men's basketball team to a pair of seven-game win streaks in the 2022-23 season has shown a student-athlete who has been the picture of poise and leadership.

In his first season as a Demon, Sharp has become the measure of NSU's collective heartbeat as well as the engine that drives the team, earning three Southland Conference Player of the Week honors – the third of which came this past Monday.

As the Demons return home at 3:30 p.m. Saturday to start a three-game Southland homestand by hosting Texas A&M-Commerce, they do so with Sharp in a much better head space than he was a year ago.

Sidelined by an injury while at Missouri State, Sharp appeared in just eight games, averaging a touch over 22 minutes per game and scoring five points per contest.

"It was real stressful," said Sharp, who missed the Bears' final 18 games of the season and 26 games in all. "The injury hit my mental health for a very long time. It hit it to where there was a point where I thought I wouldn't be able to continue to play.

"Now when I'm around the team and this facility, all the coaches, (athletic trainer) Zach (Standfiord), (head) coach (Corey) Gipson, they keep me high, because they make sure to let me know the injury won't cause me not to play this year. We're going to take care of your body. Stay off your feet as much as you can and continue to heal. That played a big factor in how I'm playing right now, because it doesn't hurt as much. Now I can play to my full potential and it's showing."

It showed Thursday night in the first of a two-game, three-day home-and-home series between Northwestern State (17-8, 9-3) and Commerce (11-14, 7-4). Sharp set a career-high with 35 points – his third 30-plus-point game of the season – while grabbing a team-leading seven rebounds and handing out a team-high six assists.

Sharp's performance fell in line with what he has done all season. Entering Saturday's game, which will air on ESPN+, Sharp leads the Southland Conference in scoring (17.8 points per game) and ranks in the top 10 in assists (2nd, 4.9 per game), assist-to-turnover ratio (3rd, 2.0), steals per game (3rd, 1.9), free throw percentage (5th, .796), field goal percentage (7th, .443) and blocks per game (8th, 0.8).

In conference play, Sharp is averaging better than 19 points per game while shooting better than 50 percent from the field.

"I'm not really impressed by anything he does on the floor," Gipson said. "He's a tremendous worker behind the scenes. What he's had to endure to put himself in this position – after having some injuries in the past – a lot of people had written him off. A lot of people I know in the profession said he'll never be the same player he was. Now he's a better player than he used to be. He's stronger, bigger and faster."

Sharp's relationship with Gipson has played a crucial role in his recovery as well.

Aside from sharing a position – Gipson led Austin Peay to a pair of NCAA Tournament berths as a point guard – the two share a checkered health history. Gipson suffered a broken foot during his college career that he said "humbled him," and made him aware of the preciousness of a playing career.

He has passed that knowledge along to Sharp, who has taken it and run with it in much the same way he does after pulling down a defensive rebound or scooping up a loose ball in the open court.

"He's been through literally everything I've been through or am going through," Sharp said of Gipson. "I continue to listen to him and help him encourage me not to be down about. At the point I was down, I was mentally messed up. I was talking to my mom, talking to my brother, talking to my family about it. They didn't know anything about it.

"Coach Gipson, he knew. He was telling me, from the beginning, don't be down about it, because there's something better on down the road. Continue to keep your head high and your chin up. It's going way better down the road."

On down the road or at home, the Demons have followed Sharp's lead to forge a first-place tie with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi atop the Southland Conference standings.

With six games remaining, Sharp has one focus – stay "wired" as Gipson likes to say.

"It means I'm real aggressive," Sharp said. "I'm not backing down. I'm not settling. I want to help this team win. With me being wired, that's going to help us get to the tournament – and I mean the big tournament. I know I've got to focus on the next game, but as long as I'm aggressive, this team goes far.

"Everybody knows it. My teammates know it. That's the beauty of it for me, knowing my teammates know in order for us to win I have to be aggressive. It helped us grow and will keep us growing."