Introducing Mario Little

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

He’s 6-foot-6 and weighs 210 pounds. He can play multiple positions and says defense is his biggest strength.

No, not Brandon Rush — he’s gone. But junior college transfer Mario Little’s profile does sound like a duplicate of Rush’s.

It’s no easy task following one of the greatest Kansas basketball players of all time, but Little isn’t worried about it.

“That’s what I’ve been doing all my life – stepping up big in big games,” Little said.

Little, a junior guard, will have an opportunity to step up right away for the Jayhawks this season. Kansas coach Bill Self recruited him to do just that.

Rated as the No. 1 junior college player in the nation last year by Rivals.com, Little led Chipola College in Marianna, Fla. to a 35-2 record and a tournament appearance.

But he played his last game as an Indian in March. He started to concentrate on schoolwork and qualifying academically for the next three months, which left barely any time for basketball.

His Kansas debut in June was even more impressive considering he hadn’t played regularly. Only a little more than 12 hours after moving to Lawrence, Little played in a scrimmage game with teammates and alumni as part of Self’s youth basketball camp.

The campers chanted the name of current NBA forward Julian Wright when he entered the gym. The player who had to guard Wright, Little, didn’t garner any applause.

But Little got the best of Wright on that day. Little’s team won the game after he held Wright to three rebounds.

“He’s coming here and expecting to produce,” Wright said. “I think that’s the thing he’s going to do. He’s long and athletic so he can give people fits on the defensive end.”

The scrimmage wasn’t Wright’s first run-in with Little. The two used to play together on a Chicago-based AAU team. Wright said some people made a mistake and forgot about Little after he went to junior college.

Fellow junior college transfer Tyrone Appleton had no trouble remembering him. Appleton’s junior college, Midland, beat Little and Chipola in the junior college national championship two years ago. Appleton said he joked with Little about it but that he looked forward to being teammates at Kansas.

“We should be pretty good together this year,” Appleton said. “He’s a great player and I like to play with good people.”

And he’s got the measurements and qualities that should remind Jayhawk fans of a great player.

—Edited by Rustin Dodd

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