University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Michael Ramey's Mental, Physical Willpower Paves Way Amidst Adversity
1/31/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss senior guard Michael Ramey may be the epitome of a real-life Hoosiers character, but his basketball journey has taken the Indianapolis native to three different schools beyond the state lines.
There were certainly some obstacles in the way, but Ramey, who looked to get in at least 500 shots per day growing up in basketball-centric Indiana, swished them all to finish his collegiate career as a Golden Eagle.
"I had c. diff and acute kidney injury, so I was in the hospital for two weeks and it ended my season," Ramey said about his freshman year at Ball State, where he played the first nine games before going down. "I redshirted and got that year back. It actually worked out in my favor to get that experience as a freshman and get to restart. It wasn't fun being put out for the season and spending two weeks in the hospital, but it worked in my favor."
C. diff, which binomially is known as Clostridium difficile, is a digestive infection that occurs in around 200,000 people nationwide per year. Some are fortunate to only have mild battles with it, while it can be fatal to others.
Ramey, despite the nerve-wracking episode, took his optimism to a place perfectly suitable for that: Miami, Fla.
"I redshirted my freshman year and I would have sit out a year if I went to another Division I school due to NCAA transfer rules, so I went juco to see my options," he said. "I got in touch with Miami-Dade CC and ended up going down there."
As a redshirt-freshman getting his first full collegiate season under his belt, Ramey averaged a rock-steady 12 points per game with a 40 percent clip from beyond the three-point line as Miami-Dade went 21-10.
Well, almost a full season. Broken wrist, in the shooting hand. Surgery needed.
"After that happened, I pretty much lost all my offers and interest. When a shooter breaks his shooting wrist, and it requires surgery it's hard to know if they will ever be able to shoot the same." Ramey said. "I rehabbed it really well and came back in the summer and played in some juco showcases and got some offers, but I wanted to give myself another chance to see what other options I could get."
It was then west-bound for the sharp shooter, landing in Seminole, Okla. Ramey admits it was a culture shock going from Miami to the town of 7,000, but that he enjoyed his time there.
Then, fireworks. Ramey led the NJCAA in three-point shooting at an unconscious 59.3 percent. His time had come, and some familiar eyes from the midwest had taken notice, but this time from the southeast, in Doc Sadler and Chris Croft.
"I played in Nebraska's elite camp when I was in high school." Ramey said. "Wes Flanigan [now the head coach at Little Rock] was an assistant there at the time, and he was recruiting me there and invited me to the elite camp. Doc and Coach Croft were there and that's how I knew them."
Sadler's recollection brings about two distinct factors that swayed him years later to take in Ramey as part of the Golden Eagle family.
"Mike made the decision to go to Ball State, but I always kept up with him," Sadler said. "The spring he was at Seminole Junior College, we were looking for a guy that could shoot the basketball and who was a good person. We were able to convince him to come join us and he's been everything we hoped he would be."
In the Hattiesburg rendezvous, it was then-assistant Jeremy Cox who called Ramey and expressed the program's initial interest. While Ramey said there wasn't any weekly or monthly communication between Sadler and Croft in all those years since their meeting in Lincoln, it was "nice already being familiar with those guys."
The character Ramey had to exhibit in overcoming his illness and injury is as organic as it gets. He wears his family values upon his chest, and rightfully so on the court with four relatives who played college basketball, three of whom at the Division I level. But his younger brother stands above it all.
"My little brother Matthew, who has autism, is my biggest motivation," Ramey said. "He wasn't presented with the same circumstances as me, and that makes me want to make the most of mine."
The stoic 6-foot-5 Ramey has grown from his many diverse, and adverse, life experiences. It all began with his five-to-six hour days at his southside Indianapolis YMCA, either taking his 500-shot routine with his dad, Mark (his favorite rebounder) or fellow friends at the gym, or playing pickup and hanging around with others from which he could learn the game.
Sophomore Tim Rowe, also Ramey's roommate, said Michael was his first friend in Hattiesburg. Rowe says the thing that struck him the most was Ramey's straightforward personality and efforts to introduce the freshman to everyone from teammates to his barber. As for the basketball side of things, Rowe will admit one thing that validates Ramey's work ethic.
"To be honest, it's been tough keeping up with him," Rowe said. "He worked out every single day, pretty much all day getting shots up. It's hard keeping up with someone that dedicated to getting better, but it's something I look up to. I want to get to that some day."
Ramey, who says he hopes to play overseas upon his May graduation from Southern Miss, will look to enter the business field upon playing his final-career game and even pursue a Master's degree. Success in the near future certainly should not be a surprise to him or others.
"A lot of people see moving around a lot is a negative, but I got to live in four different parts of the country and a lot of people don't get that opportunity," he said. "For me it was a blessing because it helped me grow as a player and a person."
