University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Above The Rim With The Golden Eagles ? David Haywood
2/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Above The Rim With The Golden Eagles ? David Haywood
Note: As the 2002-03 basketball season continues, SouthernMiss.com continues to 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 redshirt sophomore guard David Haywood (6-4, 190, Natchez, Miss., Natchez High School). Haywood has made tremendous improvement from his freshman season, and has, in fact, started five games this season, including each of the last three games. He?s currently averaging 5.8 points and 2.1 rebounds a game and has developed into one of the Golden Eagles? more reliable three-point shooters.
SouthernMiss.com: ?How much progress do you feel that you made from last season to this season?
Haywood: ?I think I came a long way, especially in the area of confidence. I think I could do a lot of things last season, but just didn?t have the confidence to do them. I also bulked up some from last season, still not enough, and I got stronger. The combination of being stronger, and the confidence I gained through a year?s experience I think have made me a better player.?
SouthernMiss.com: ?How different are the high school game and the college game??
Haywood: ?It?s a totally different level, especially from a focus standpoint. It takes focus to come out and win at the college level. In high school, you could just go out and play the game, but here, you have to focus, have a plan, and you have to be able to put that plan into action.?
SouthernMiss.com: ?How do you explain the progress you made from last season to this season??
Haywood: ?I worked really hard in the offseason. I didn?t put in enough work prior to last season, and that?s probably one of the reasons my confidence wasn?t as high as I needed it to be. But this season, I decided to do the work, to come in here and work as hard as I could. That has paid off, and I think it?s one of the reasons I have improved as much as I have this season.?
SouthernMiss.com: ?What do you enjoy about playing the game??
Haywood: ?There?s really nothing else I can think of that I would enjoy more than the experience that comes with playing college basketball. Being away from your family can be a problem for some players, and being a part of your basketball ?team? family really helps that situation. Playing college basketball at this level is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I just want to take full advantage of that experience.?
SouthernMiss.com: ?How hard is it for a player, you in particular, to adapt to the difficulties presented by a demanding practice and game schedule, the travel involved with the college game, and a busy academic schedule?
Haywood: ?The schedule is tough. You have to put more energy into the academic side. It may seem that you have more time than ever when you get to college, but, with the academics, you have to spend as much spare time as you have at it, because there?s just so much to do that deals with basketball, practice, weights, watching tape. It just makes it really important that you work hard to stay current in the classroom, to get things done as quickly as possible, once they?re assigned.
SouthernMiss.com: ?Certainly you?re not where you want to be at this point in the season, but how much improvement has this team made from the start of the season until now??
Haywood: ?We?ve made progress, more in the area of mindset than any other way, I think. It has taken us losing some games to understand what it really takes to win. Early on, we won games because we had better personnel. Some of the teams we?ve lost to, we feel that we had better personnel, but those teams came in with a plan and stuck with it. We couldn?t beat them with talent alone, and some of the games we?ve lost, close games, we got away from what we needed to do to win.?
SouthernMiss.com: ?You stay busy with basketball and academics, but, in what free time you have, how do you spend it??
Haywood: ?When I?m caught up with everything I need to do, I spend time hanging out with my teammates, and we, as a team, spend some of our ?free? time working on our shooting, and I spend some extra time trying to get stronger.?
SouthernMiss.com: ?For fans who don?t know David Haywood, what is the one thing a fan might find interesting about you??
Haywood: ?I wish I had more time to spend with older people, especially in nursing homes. I don?t have the time to spend doing that as I would like, but it?s important to me and something that I plan to do more of when I do have the time. It?s something that?s rewarding to me, and I think beneficial to the older people I visit with.?
