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Fletcher Page, Cincinnati EnquirerPublished 10:31 a.m. ET April 1, 2020 | Updated 10:34 a.m. ET April 1, 2020

Time hasn't helped Trevon Scott process the end of his college basketball career.

Three weeks have passed since the novel coronavirus outbreak abruptly canceled sports around the world, but the former Cincinnati basketball forward says he feels worse now than the day the NCAA and American Athletic Conference tournaments were called off.

“It will haunt me for the rest of my life because it's a question that I'll never get to answer,” Scott said. “How would it have ended? Where would we have gone?"

Scott returned to his coastal Georgia hometown this week, days ahead of when the Final Four was supposed to be played.

His dad, Eddie, helped with packing up and the roughly 11-hour drive from Cincinnati to Townsend, a small community located between Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida. His sisters, Jada and Jadyn, rising sophomores on UC's women's basketball team, were already home, providing a family-oriented silver lining that Scott recently told his mom Anita was, "the only good thing," about the global health crisis.

That's not enough to ease Scott's basketball what-ifs. Not yet.

"My family helps me, but I hate it more now because there was so much more that I had planned to do, and I just knew it was going to be a different outcome than my previous years in college," he said.

"I felt better a few days after it than I do now because I didn't have as much time to really sit and think about the season and think about the stuff that I did and the stuff that I was planning to do in the NCAA Tournament."


Scott, the AAC Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player and and Sportsmanship Award winner, talked at length about what still bothers him about the end.

UC had "two or three of the best practices," of the season in advance of the AAC Tournament, where the Bearcats were slotted as the No. 1 seed. A season full of adversity – among it a slow start, star senior Jarron Cumberland's injuries and coach John Brannen's father died – created a tough-minded team ready for postseason challenges, Scott says. This year's NCAA Tournament would have been about attending to unfinished business, a phrase Scott, Cumberland and junior Keith Williams frequently used in reference to previous early exits from the Big Dance. But it was also supposed to be the first March Madness experience for graduate transfers Jaevin Cumberland and Chris McNeal, who opted for one season at UC and helped the Bearcats' to what would have been a 10th straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

"Damn, I feel bad that they can't experience it, ever," Scott said.

"We'll never know what we could have done because of this situation that happened."

With the next steps of his playing career unknown, Scott isn't hoisting as many shots as he would like because gyms are closed due to social distancing orders. He works out daily, always cardio for conditioning and body-weight exercises to maintain strength.

"Just waiting on everything to clear up so I can get back to the gym and grinding again," he said.

Scott continues to talk to agents for potential representation. Everyone, he says, has told him the NBA Combine and the window for private workouts with teams, "will be pushed back," until the coronavirus spread is slowed and the NBA creates a plan moving forward.

Brannen told Scott to remain patient.

"One thing I have learned from the professional ranks, being a professional basketball player and from guys that go to the NBA, is it's a truth serum industry, meaning they're going to tell you the truth but they're going to do everything they need to do to get the evaluations they need to improve their organization," Brannen said last month on 700WLW. "Whether that's now and whether that pushes the combine back three months, it's going to happen because they need to improve their organizations."

Until then, Scott's basketball memories pinball.

He played in 108 victories, second-most in UC history behind Steve Logan. He was the first Bearcat to average a double-double (11.4 points, 10.5 rebounds) since Dwight Jones in 1982-83, the first at UC to post 20-plus points and rebounds in a game (22 and 21 against UCF) since Kenyon Martin in 1998.

After redshirting his first season and averaging 11 minutes a game combined his first two seasons on the court, Scott said he hopes the later stages of his career will make it difficult for UC fans to forget him.

"I stayed the course," he said. "I'm a hard worker, so I knew that it was going to all pay off to the point that I'm at right now. It got me into a great position. Just hearing my name in talks with Kenyon Martin and some of the greats who played before me, that means a lot."

These moments of satisfaction, however, are fleeting. Talk of playing for UC reminds Scott of how it ended. A season motivated by unfinished business turned into an unanswerable question.

Perhaps time, distance and an eventual return to the court will change the takeaway. Scott isn't counting on that happening.

"That question will never go away," he said. "That feeling will never go away."

Thanks for posting!

I think all of us feel bad for him and the 1,000 other players who would have been in the NCAA. Many had not been and may never.

Right there with ya, Tre. Right there with ya.

Around the country, players have handled this so well. You have to feel for them.

Good luck, he's young he'll get over it...my sympathies are with the thousands that have passed away and many thousands more who will...

Tre Scott is a classy young man and has great leadership potential in whatever endeavor he undertakes in his young life. I wish him nothing but the best. He will no doubt represent the University of Cincinnati well in whatever he pursues, but more importantly will be a role model and inspiration for others, including other young people who must also overcome obstacles and barriers to success.

No doubt it will haunt him, it’s basically basketball interruptus.

(04-01-2020 11:51 AM)CincyBro Wrote:  Good luck, he's young he'll get over it...my sympathies are with the thousands that have passed away and many thousands more who will...

I mean, of course there are levels of sympathy. I feel bad every time my barely two year old daughter asks me to take her to the park. Doesn't mean it's the level of the many who have died from the illness. Many have faced consequences. It sucks for Scott that he missed his last AAC and NCAA tournaments. He'll be fine, but I feel for him.

I honestly believe it was the type of team that could have pulled off an upset in the tournament and won 1-2 games. That would have been great considering how the season started.

(04-01-2020 09:59 AM)Cat-Man Wrote:  "One thing I have learned from the professional ranks, being a professional basketball player and from guys that go to the NBA, is it's a truth serum industry, meaning they're going to tell you the truth but they're going to do everything they need to do to get the evaluations they need to improve their organization," Brannen said last month on 700WLW. "Whether that's now and whether that pushes the combine back three months, it's going to happen because they need to improve their organizations."

I didn't realize that Brannen played professionally. Turns out he played in Belgium's top league for two years.

I really hope that Tre can do something similar. He's got the personality and talent to do well over there. After playing pro for a few years, he'd be a great candidate for an assistant coach at UC in the future.

(04-02-2020 10:31 AM)Dannyboy Wrote:  I honestly believe it was the type of team that could have pulled off an upset in the tournament and won 1-2 games. That would have been great considering how the season started.

I thought so too. This team demonstrated a pretty amazing ability to win the close ones, often thanks to Jarron's closing moment heroics. NCAA games are often won (or lost, as we Bearcat fans know all too well) by a point or two.

I don't ever believe in "luck" but on the other hand, odds are the bad bounce, the unlikely tip in or unexpected three pointer at some point go our way.

this team had what it takes to lose in the first round. imo

but honestly, how many players get to end their careers like trevon? winning basket on senior night in a can't lose game

(04-02-2020 09:59 PM)Lush Wrote:  but honestly, how many players get to end their careers like trevon? winning basket on senior night in a can't lose game

This is the one silver lining in this whole situation. Almost always your career ends in a loss. His career ended on a play to win the conference championship in front of a crazy senior night crowd.

(04-02-2020 08:42 PM)Lush Wrote:  this team had what it takes to lose in the first round. imo

I don't think they were going far either with Jarron and Vogt as banged up as they were. Healthy and with the momentum we were building in conference play, I think we would have been a dangerous team with a legit shot to get to the 2nd weekend.

They should have let them play in empty arenas.

I thought that being jilted by my old high school sweetheart during my sophomore year at UC would haunt me for the rest of my life. It didn't. A few years later, I thought that getting kicked out of Marine Corps flight training at Pensacola NAS would haunt me for the rest of my life. It didn't.

Teyvon is young, and other issues of greater import will inevitably put this year's lost opportunity into perspective. Here's hoping he looks back on his lament a few years from now and finds it difficult to suppress a smile.

(04-03-2020 06:01 PM)Dont tase me bro Wrote:  They should have let them play in empty arenas.

Rudy Gobert.

(04-03-2020 07:52 PM)Bearcatbdub Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 06:01 PM)Dont tase me bro Wrote:  They should have let them play in empty arenas.

Rudy Gobert.

Yeah, that's what led to cancelling the tournament. They should have let them play in empty arenas