02/04 at 11:12 PM

Dr. Joyce Hopson-Longmire sat in section 117 of Auburn Arena about an hour before Thursday’s game against Tennessee, watching her son, Josh Wallace, warm up with the rest of the Tigers.

Her eyes lit up as she recalled a time the diminutive Wallace, when he was about 8 or 9 years old, was matched up against a much older — and much taller — opponent one-on-one at a basketball camp.

“What Joshua did, he threw the ball between his legs and ran around him,” Hopson-Longmire said with a laugh. “He’s always competed against older guys. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me how he plays.”

The Tigers’ sophomore guard from Pensacola, Fla. — generously listed at 5-foot-10, 160 pounds — looks a little out of place on the court.

He’s a full head shorter than most of the other players out there and a full foot shorter than some of the frontcourt giants he takes on in his fearless drives into the lane.

But Wallace has been living with that his whole life. And he’s got a philosophy about that.

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,” Wallace said. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

“If they’re better than me, they’re going to have to prove it.”

Wallace has started at the point for 17 of the Tigers’ 22 games, averaging 5.8 points per contest and dishing out a team-leading 3.8 assists per game.

He’s fourth in the SEC in assists per game and leads the conference with 40 steals.

And he’s doing it all for free: Wallace is a walk-on.

“Since Day 1, I’ve had to work for everything I’ve earned, everything I’ve got,” Wallace said. “Every time I want to take a day off, I remember that chip on my shoulder: I’ve just got to keep working.

“It’s been good to me so far, working this hard.”

‘Nerds rule the world’

An All-State player at Pensacola’s Booker T. Washington High, Wallace had the opportunity to be a scholarship player at some smaller D-I schools, but chose Auburn for the chance at playing on the big stage and to fulfill his academic aspirations.

That’s another thing you should know about Wallace: the civil engineering major is on an 80 percent academic scholarship.

“(Teammates) call me a nerd and all that,” Wallace said. “I don’t mind being a nerd. Nerds rule the world. They give me a hard time, but every now and then when they get in a math class or something, I’ll be the first one they ask.”

Wallace said there was a strict hierarchy in his house growing up: Bible, books, then basketball.

Hopson-Longmire, who has been a professor at Pensacola State College for the past 33 years, wouldn’t have it any other way.

But Hopson-Longmire, a former point guard herself, also recognized how powerful a motivational tool the promise of basketball could be.

“They always say teachers’ kids and preachers’ kids are the worst ones,” Hopson-Longmire said. “And I wanted to make sure mine did not fall into that category. In my house, you get your lesson out first before you can even start dealing with basketball.

“Even while he was doing his homework, the basketball was right there in the chair. Soon as you finish your homework, you can go outside and play.”

Earning respect

Wallace starred on a series of youth teams through elementary and middle school, and he said his size deficiency really didn’t start catching up to him until high school.

The first day he showed up for practice at Auburn, he said the rest of the team thought he was a guy from the student activities center looking for a pickup game.

They don’t feel that way anymore.

“He’s got a lot of toughness, a lot of heart,” forward Ty Armstrong said. “Coming from a walk-on and being a starter the next year, that takes a lot of faith, lot of work ethic.

“He’s someone I really appreciate, looking up to him. Even though he’s a lot smaller than me.”

Things didn’t always look so promising for Wallace.

He had a nearly constant seat on the end of the bench last season — averaging 7.5 minutes per game — and Wallace said he often considered giving up the dream.

Hopson-Longmire said the low point came after an early season, three-game tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla., when Wallace saw the court for only 4 minutes in front of a crowd that included some of his former AAU teammates and coaches.

After the tournament was over, Hopson-Longmire hopped in her car for a 4 a.m. drive to Auburn to see her son.

“I put my arm around him and let him know, you can’t let nobody take your joy away from you,” Hopson-Longmire said. “If you want to do it, you do it.

“Don’t give up. Your day will come.”

When new coach Tony Barbee came in — with almost an entirely new team from last year — he opened up competition at all the starting spots.

And Wallace made the lineup.

“You want players as a coach who play bigger than what they are,” Barbee said. “You see a lot of 6-10, 6-11 guys who play like they are 6-foot tall. Josh Wallace, when he looks in the mirror, he sees a guy who is about 6-10, 300 pounds. That is how he plays.”

It’s the only way he’s ever known.

“He plays with heart,” Hopson-Longmire said, watching her son on the court below. “That makes him taller.”

| 737-2568

Josh Wallace, Point Guard, Auburn

  *  5-foot-10, 160 pounds

  *  Walk-on

  *  80 percent academic scholarship (civil engineering)

  *  leads SEC with 40 steals

  *  leads team with 3.8 assists per game (4th in SEC)

  *  averaging 5.8 points per game

Auburn (8-14, 1-7) at Georgia (15-6, 4-4)

Where: Auburn Arena

When: 12:30 p.m.

Radio/TV: WKKR (97.7 FM)/SEC Network

Projected starters, Auburn: F Allen Payne, 6-6, Fr. (6.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 1.1 spg); F Kenny Gabriel, 6-8, Jr. (9.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 1.1 bpg); F Adrian Forbes, 6-8, Jr. (3.5 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.6 bpg); G Josh Wallace, 5-10, So. (5.8 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 3.8 apg); G Earnest Ross, 6-5, So. (12.5 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.3 apg)

Projected starters, Georgia: F Travis Leslie, 6-4, Jr. (14.1 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 2.7 apg); F Trey Thompkins, 6-10, Jr. (16.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.4 apg); F Jeremy Price, 6-8, Sr. (8.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 0.9 bpg); G Dustin Ware, 5-11, Jr. (8.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 3.8 apg); G Gerald Robinson, 6-1, Jr. (13.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.0 rpg)