Tanya Bullock (2003) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Tanya Bullock

Induction:
2003

There have been certain athletes that have emerged onto the scene at Southern Miss over the years that have found a way to change the way that people look at the particular sport that they play. Someone who brings something to the table that perhaps has never been brought before or at least never brought in quite the way they have brought it.
   Tanya Bullock was that type of player. A basketball player who in her own way brought something special to Lady Eagle basketball and changed it for the better.
   Her versatility was rare and it allowed her to do things on the court that many Lady Eagle fans had never seen before. As a 5-9 guard she could do it all. Her speed and quickness with the basketball made it nearly impossible to stop her when she brought the ball up-court against pressure. When someone attempted to guard her face to face in the half court, she would blow right by them either take it to the basket or draw the defense to her and feed the ball to a wide open teammate. And if a defender elected to play off of her, her deadly outside shooting touch would make them pay for it.
   Her unselfishness with the basketball endeared her to teammates and fans alike and left many opposing coaches wishing they had a guard who like Tanya, put team and victory ahead of individual statistics.
   Tanya arrived at Southern Miss in time for the 1990-91 season from South Pike High School, where she teamed with fellow Hall of Fame member Janice Felder, to make that school one of the most powerful in Mississippi high school circles. Some say that Tanya was more highly recruited than Janice, and whether or not that is true, her skills and versatility make it easy to see why that might be the case.
   It didn’t take her long to prove to Coach Kay James and her staff that she was ready to make a contribution right away and she immediately moved into the starting lineup where she stayed for four years.
   Over her career she would play in 118 games and start 115. She would finish her career as the 8th all-time leading scorer in Lady Eagle history with 1,408 points, second in career assists with 515, fifth in career steals with 276 and first in career minutes played with 4,047.
   In 1990-91 as a freshman Tanya and the Lady Eagles finished 17-12 and advanced to the second round of the Metro Conference tournament. But over the next three years the Lady Eagles were 67-23, won a Metro Conference Tournament championship, a pair of metro Conference regular season championships and appeared twice in the NCAA tournament, advancing to the Sweet 16 in the 1993-94 tournament.
   She was a second team all-Metro Conference selection in 1991-92 and a first team selection her junior and senior years.
   Basketball is a team game and no one that has ever played for the Lady Eagles had a better feel for that than did Tanya Bullock.