Former App State guard Myles Tate shed his college jersey in 2025 and began a new chapter in familiar colors but an unfamiliar place.
Following his senior 2024-25 season, Tate joined TRIA EKA AEL Limassol Basketball Club, a professional basketball team in the Republic of Cyprus, approximately 6,000 miles from his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
When Tate finished his collegiate career, he had set his sights on the next level — the NBA. However, after only receiving interest from the G-League, he turned his sights toward developing and making a name for himself overseas.
“I chose this team because I would have the best opportunity to show what I could do,” Tate said.
Tate is keeping his word with a stellar rookie season, averaging 17.2 points, with a career high of 31 points, reached twice this season.
Tate is also scoring efficiently, shooting 48.6% inside the arc and 34.6% from 3-point range.
Despite these numbers, Tate had to adjust to his new lifestyle on and off the hardwood.
“It’s really different from home because, at home, you got your family with you,” Tate said. “That’s definitely a hard part, being out here, is not being able to talk to them.”
Tate said the game is different in the United States compared to overseas.
“It has definitely been a learning curve from pro to college as far as basketball and the way they play because the style of play is different overseas,” Tate said. “Overseas, it’s a lot of system-based basketball, ball movement and player movement.”
However, Tate attributes a key part of his success to the Mountaineers and head coach Dustin Kerns for teaching him the importance of defense.
“I think the biggest thing from App State was on the defensive side. We play some of the same defenses that I played at App State,” Tate said.
He also recounts how Kerns would not put players on the court who could not defend, which is similar to his current head coach, Kalia Papadopoulou.
Playing overseas can be a hard and thankless grind, as players are away from their families and often paid little money. However, Tate has bigger motivations.
“I’ll say number one is my faith in God. I really got big faith, and I know I wouldn’t be in this position without him. He gives me the strength to get up every day and the motivation to keep going,” Tate said.
His mom was a minister, which resulted in Tate’s faith strengthening as he grew up in the church.
He also plays for someone who did not have the chance to reach his potential.
“I played football in middle school, and I played quarterback, and one of my receivers and one of my good friends, Jacob McCollum, when I was in eighth grade, he passed away in a dirt bike incident, and he wore number 12,” Tate said. “So that following year, I started wearing number 12 and never picked another jersey number.”
Tate takes all of his motivation and fuels his journey with hopes of reaching a personal goal.
“I want to go to the highest level — an internal goal for myself. I wanna look back and tell myself that I did everything I could to make those things happen,” Tate said.
Tate is nearing the end of his rookie season and plans to play basketball as long as he is able.
“I got so much motivation; if I wanted to stop, I couldn’t,” Tate said. “I want to tell myself that I did everything I could to reach my dreams.”