It started with a text message at the end of September.
On Sept. 30, BYU freshman basketball player Egor Demin got a text from the Cougars’ social media crew asking if he would be willing to take part in a trend that has people pretend that pumpkins are basketballs.
Demin, who went to a pumpkin patch a few days later, obliged with the request, and photos popped up on the official BYU Basketball social media accounts of him looking to pass a pumpkin as he would a basketball and pretending to shoot one.
Then the Halloween celebrations really ramped up this week. On Oct. 29, the team held a trick-or-treat event at the Marriott Center that was open to the public, with Demin and teammate Townsend Tripple dressing up as Lloyd Christmas (Demin) and Harry Dunne (Tripple) in bright orange and blue “tuxedos” from a scene in the movie “Dumb and Dumber” (OK, maybe that isn’t exactly wholesome, but stick with us).
“I’m feeling great. I’m having so much fun with my brother ... we’re just having fun,” Demin said in a video the team posted on social media. “We’re just having fun making kids happy. That’s all I need. That’s all I need. That’s it.”
Then on Thursday night Demin went trick-or-treating for the first time ever, joined by teammate Trevin Knell, Knell’s wife and another friend, with Demin having undergone a costume change to an inflatable Eggo waffle (the jump from Egor to Eggo is highly logical).
As they approached a door, Demin asked, “What am I saying?”
The reply from one of his companions: “Trick-or-treat.”