As the basketball season has kicked off the Raiders have won 5 of their 6 games. Senior guard Mike LaTulip has taken a less traveled road to get to Wright State as he transferred from the University of Illinois.
His journey all started in high school where LaTulip holds an impressive all-time scoring record of 1,484 points as he averaged 22.5 points a game. After high school, he went the University of Illinois where he graduated with a degree in Communications but saw very limited minutes in his 4 years of basketball for the Illini.
LaTulip still had another year of eligibility to play basketball after graduating, so he looked for a school that would test him and challenge him with a bigger role on the team. In search for a team, LaTulip wanted a team that “could win, had a good coaching staff, and that he could play for.”
When LaTulip’s older brother was 4 and started playing basketball, LaTulip was only 2. While watching his older brother play he fell in love with the sport himself. Living in Illinois since he was 8 LaTulip found the transition to Wright State to be tough, but as he grew with his teammates they helped him in his adjustment period.
When asked about a player he looks up to in the NBA, LaTulip responded with Steph Curry.
“This is before all the Steph Curry hoopla because I remember when he was at Davidson as a sophomore and that was in 2007-2008 was really when I started to follow him and like his game,” LaTulip quickly added.
For LaTulip basketball is more than just fame and numbers and trying to recreate his high school experience.
“After 4 years of playing for Illinois and learning even more about the game of basketball, you start to realize that is really not about what you do individually and its more about the relationships you build and who you can impact,” LaTulip said. He also mentioned that having a good year statistically would be icing on the cake, but his main focus is just to see how many people he can have a positive impact on in his final season.
