Unlike most students who attend Grambling State University, Terry Rose does not have any family ties, never visited the campus and he slightly doubted even playing for a Division-I school, but thankfully someone instilled a quote in his younger years that stuck through the adversity.
“Hard work beats talents when talent fails to work hard,” said Rose as he remembers his motivation during the time when there wasn’t any Division-I school giving him strong consideration.
For majority of his senior year Rose went “under the radar” to the top college recruits. His Coach, Don Skipper, at Ridge Community High School, was his primary motivator during this hardship. He reminded him to keep working hard and that recruits were going to come.
Rose took heed to the advice from his coach and took it game by game, determined to be recognized as a prolific scorer. He finished the final season with the Bolts averaging 25.1 and scored more than 30 points in eight contests. Finally, that was enough to catch the eye of many schools that previous passed him up.
With no family ties to Grambling, assistant basketball coach Allen Odum was pressured with the difficult task of recruiting a kid from the sunny beaches of Florida to the a small country town in Louisiana.
“It’s not as hard as people make it,” said coach Odum. “Every place has something in common. It feels like family here. You have one family and come to another one.”
Grambling gave Rose an offer he couldn’t refuse and moved more than 850 miles to suit up in black and gold attire.
Rose declined offers from Auburn, FAMU, Mississippi Valley, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Tulane and host other programs.
One of the hardest things about traveling hundreds miles to a small town off I-20 was Rose leaving his mother, Helen Wilson, his supportive backbone.
“Whatever I want to do, she backs me up,” said Rose. “She is real supportive. She really doesn’t know that much about basketball but that’s what gets me.”
Even though Rose’s mother probably can’t tell you what a flagrant foul is, but she knows when he boy scores, and to Rose that’s all that matters.
“She not real loud, but when I score she is yelling,” said the Grambling shooting guard.
Grambling basketball program hooked Rose by promising him that he could play the same style he was familiar with. Coming straight out of high school, he would have a chance to play right away, get a fair share of minutes and get the scoring opportunities he was use too.
Rose admits that the he has been given all of those opportunities, as promised from the coaching staff. Rose came to Grambling during a transitional period for the team, with a new coach and losing their best player and leading scorer, Quincy Roberts. Rose has a chance to rise as a star player in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Roberts left Grambling to chase his NBA dreams, it was critical that the coaching staff fill his scoring power and leadership abilities.
Rose currently leads the team in scoring 13.5 points per game, which is down to Roberts 23.9 points last season. Rose has already outshot Roberts from behind the arch with 69 made shots through 23 games, while Roberts completed 39 for the whole season.
One major difference between Rose and Robert’s game is their ability to get to the free throw line. Rose has attempted 37 free throws to date.
Roberts attempted 176 for the last season. The free throw differential attests to the scoring differential.
This season Rose scored a season high 22 points against Ball State University, Nov. 11, 2012.
He scored a season high in three pointers against Southern Mississippi University with six.
Rose and his teammates currently sit at the bottom of the SWAC conference and remain winless through 23 games. But Rose repeated multiple times, that the Tigers were going to get better. He is
confident in his coaching staff and his team’s improvement.
The Tigers will travel to Pine Bluff, Ark. to play the University of Arkansas- Pine Bluff at 7:30 p.m.