Gayman brothers to reunite as teammates at Drury
Apr. 14—The Gayman brothers remember the last time they took the court together.
The day was March 3, 2018, and the brothers were striving to get Nevada its first district championship since 1998.
But the Tigers fell 61-47 to eventual Class 4 state champion Grandview. With Clay graduating in May and set to continue his career at Abilene Christian, sophomore Dalton never thought he would play alongside his older brother again.
"I actually thought I may get to play against him, but I never thought I would play with him again," said Dalton, who played his freshman season at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith in 2020-21.
What a difference two weeks can make.
On Monday night, the former Nevada standouts announced their plans to transfer to Drury, where the two reunite as teammates.
"Pretty much every external, outside source that I have that I trust, all the people I'm close to — all directions pointed toward Coach (Chris) Foster at Drury," Clay said. "He's a great dude. Drury has a bunch of nice facilities. They are a basketball school. At the end of the day, that's what we ended up going toward. We knew we ended up picking the right one for us, what we believe is Drury."
Dalton said putting on the same uniform as his brother quickly brought back Nevada Tiger memories.
"It was awesome," Dalton said. "It brought back a little deja vu from sophomore year, putting on a Nevada jersey with him. Since probably this year, I wanted to get back to playing with him because I really missed it."
"That is something not a lot of people get to do," Clay said. "I'm thankful for the opportunity that I actually get to play with him. We are both going there to play a lot and to win ballgames."
Both brothers entered the transfer portal in late March. Clay's story has been well documented over the past month, highlighted by helping Abilene Christian knock off third-seeded Texas in the NCAA Tournament last month.
Clay, who is Nevada's all-time leading scorer, averaged 8.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game for ACU this past season.
After averaging 21.4 points and 8.4 rebounds as a senior for the Tigers in 2019-20, Dalton played in only limited action at UAFS as a freshman.
Nevada coach Shaun Gray knows what the brothers will bring to the table at Drury, which went 11-10 this past season.
"They will bring a tremendously high work ethic," Gray said. "They will bring versatility at both ends of the floor. They can score at all three levels on offense, and they can defend multiple people on the defensive end. They will bring a passion for the game and a commitment to excellence on and off the court. Drury is lucky to have them, and we are really glad to have them back close to home so that we as their coaches and us as a community can have an opportunity to watch and follow them closely."
Both brothers are eager to get the next chapter underway.
"The thing I'm looking forward to most is probably playing free again," Clay said. "There is a lot of freedom within Coach Foster's system, and I trust him. I'm excited to see where this leads for me and my brother."
"We are going to get to work," Dalton said. "Hopefully, we can pack out the O'Reilly Center and win a lot of games. Obviously, the goal is to win a national championship. We are going to do whatever we can to make it happen."
