Hawks eyeing USM Alums.......KB got any info?

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Hawks eyeing USM alums

Two former Southern Miss standouts are hoping to make the Atlanta Hawks' roster next season.

Forward Glen Whisby and guard Elvin Mims are on Atlanta's summer league team and are battling for a spot on the 12-man roster. If both Golden Eagles alums perform well, they will be invited to training camp in October.

Mims recently completed his career at USM, averaging 19 points and eight rebounds a game for the 2001-2002 season. He was the only bright spot in a dismal 10-win campaign for USM.

At 6-foot-5, he has the size, athleticism and shooting ability to play shooting guard in the NBA. Mims had solid workouts at the pre-draft camp last month and scouts were high on him.

Despite the high praise, Mims was not selected in the 2002 NBA Draft, so Atlanta rushed to the gate and signed him to a free agent contract.

Atlanta definitely could use some size in the backcourt. With rookie Dan Dickau (6-0) and veteran Jason Terry (6-2), Atlanta has one of the NBA's smallest starting backcourts, so you have to like Mims' chances of making the Hawks' squad.

Whisby has dropped off the basketball radar since his final season at USM in 1995. He was a second-round pick of the Fort Wayne Fury in the 1995 CBA Draft, but didn't make the team.

But the 6-foot-8 forward didn't give up his dream of playing pro basketball and decided to play overseas.

Whisby, 30, spent most of the last seven years playing hoops in Spain, Italy, Russia and Turkey.

The Chicago native put up some solid numbers overseas, averaging double-digits in scoring and rebounding for three seasons.

He averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds a game for Pallacanestro Cantu' in Italy for the 1998-99 season. A year later, he posted 12 points and 12 rebounds for Aurora Basket Jesi in Italy. Last season in Turkey, he averaged 17.3 points and 13 rebounds.

Whisby will need to perform like that in the Hawks' camp to have a shot at making the squad. Atlanta has plenty of forwards, including Theo Ratliff, Nozr Mohammed and Toni Kukoc.

After two games, neither player has done much to prove themselves worthy of a training camp invitation.

Unless Mims and Whisby steps it up a notch over the next week, they may have to play overseas next season.