Mike Shipman interview

For those who may not know..soph Mike Shipman, the team's only true PG, was suspended for seven games for academic reasons. Desopite his absence he continues to lead the Hawks in assists.


I met with Mike after practice today and personally want to thank him for taking the time to talk about his situation, and making his feelings known to the public.


MU won its first four games without him, all at home, then dropped three in a row on the road, and the last game of the four game road trip Monday at SFNY when he returned for a 17-minute stint off the bench and fouled out.

At least for Thursday night coach Dave Calloway said Shipman, who had been a starter, will again come off the bench.



Now the interview - -

First he said how glad how he was to be playing again: - ""It's just a blessing to be
back and go back to doing what I love doing, and having my family have a chance to come
and see me play again.



""Just being on the court with the guys, trying to get back to where this program's
standards (have been) for many years.''



On frustrations of not being able to play: - ""Everybody wants to play in a game.
Unfortunately it was my time to sit, God told me to sit there and watch. I've learned
from my mistake, hopefully I won't have to relive that scenario.



""My family told me not to really give into what other people think about you and
what they have to say.

""Regardless of what people said, Mike Shipman knew what was really going on and what he had to do to get back on the court.

""I had an extension on a paper and my professor allowed me to have an extension,
and I had to get the paper in. It took a little process getting the grade changed. So
the grade got changed and my GPA jumped up to where I became academically eligible.''



So what did Shipman learn from this? - "The one thing I really learned was not taking
anything for granted. I had to experience sitting out those (eight) games (for violation
of team rules) last year and having to relive the situation again, sitting out some more
games.

""My time here is almost done, I'm almost halfway through my four year career here.
Just me growing up and being a man, I'll be 20 years old in July. I'm just really
starting to grow up and see what it takes to be a man and take care of responsibilities
and being on your own and having to man up to those situations.''



Can this Monmouth team make the NEC Tournament - "Yes, we believe we will. My Dad told
me last night, the game is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. If your mind can
believe it your body can believe it.

""So we have to believe in ourselves and believe we're going to get back into the
gist of things, and get some winning streaks and get back into the NEC Tournament
first. And hopefully we'll take it one game at a time, get to the championship game, and
see what happens from there.

""Every single last person on this team....nobody doubts whether we have a chance to
make it or if we're going to make it (the NEC Tournament I assume he is referring to).

""Whoever comes in here or whoever we go or we play, we know if we play to our
maximum effort and if we play smart our chances are high.''

End of interview

As for basketball I especially liked that last remark about playing smart..that's what they have to do.