University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Above The Rim With The Golden Eagles
10/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Above The Rim With The Golden Eagles
Note: As the 2002-03 basketball season approaches, and, throughout the season,
SouthernMiss.com will regularly feature a member of this year's Golden Eagle squad,
travel diaries of upcoming trips or other aspects of the program that many Golden Eagle fans might not be aware of. We continue, this week, with senior guard Mario Myles (6-5, 210) of Jackson, Miss., who is the longest-tenured member of Head Coach James Green?s 2002-03 squad. He played for Coach Robert Stewart at Callaway High School and is the only three-year letterwinner on the team. He played in 18 games in
the 1999-00 season, started 29-of-31 games in which he played as a sophomore and last season, as a junior, started in 16-of-25 games in which he played. He averaged 6.1 points and 3.2 rebounds a game as a junior and his 74-game Golden Eagle career average stands at 5.4 points and 3.1 rebounds a game.
SouthernMiss.com: "You?re starting your senior year with the Golden Eagle program. What goals have you set, for yourself and for the team??
Myles: ?I really don?t have any individual goals. We have a lot of young players, and I
just want to try to come out and help provide the leadership for this team that will help
us win as many games as possible. I?ve been here for awhile, I know the system, and it?s important that I do whatever I can to help get our new players familiar with what we try to do, as quickly as possible.?
SouthernMiss.com: "You, and the team, last season went through a losing experience that, I?m sure, was a new and unfamiliar experience for you. How does that affect you, going into this season??
Myles: ?Last season, I really didn?t prepare myself as well as I should have. I came out of that season frustrated, and had to try to get myself in even better shape to start this season, to try to become more of a leader.?
SouthernMiss.com: "What skills do you bring to the team??
Myles: ?I think that I bring some physical ability to the game, that I understand the game better than ever after being in Coach Green?s system for three seasons, and maybe my biggest contribution is the enthusiasm I bring to the team. I try to work hard all the time, set a good example for our new players and help keep the energy level high throughout practice.?
SouthernMiss.com: "What do you look for from this year?s team, especially since it?s an
almost entirely different team from last year?s??
Myles: ?We?re a more athletic team than we were a year ago. We can run, jump and shoot better than we could a year ago. If we can get the kind of focus we need early and win as many games as we can before the conference season starts, that will give us a better chance to be a factor in the conference this season.?
SouthernMiss.com: "You?re starting your senior season. Have you accomplished most of the goals you set for yourself when you came here as a freshman??
Myles: ?I haven?t accomplished all the goals I had when I came here. We won a conference championship two years ago. That was nice, and I wanted to repeat last year. But, we didn?t come in focused enough to do that. I really want to win one more, and get to the NCAA Tournament before I graduate.?
SouthernMiss.com: "How different is this team from the others that you?ve played with here??
Myles: ?Mainly, on some of those other teams, we had one or two guys who could do something. My first couple of years we had David Wall, who could shoot the ball; Elvin Mims followed him, and we had Vandarel Jones. All those guys helped make us a better team, but this year we have a lot of guys on the perimeter who can shoot the ball, we?ve got guys who can play inside and outside, a lot of guys who can do a lot different things.?
SouthernMiss.com: "How good can this team be??
Myles: ?I really think this team can go all the way. We?ve got players who can do a lot of
different things, and if we can come out and prepare ourselves, and stay as focused as we need to be, every game, we can be a really good team and accomplish the goals we all work hard for.?
