RE: New Heath Transfer
Scott averaged but twenty minutes per game playing at Temple for two reasons.
One being misplaced favoritism as Scott transferred into a program that had two returning high volume shooters who shot 2’s at only 40 percent. Scott was relegated to coming off the bench, even though Scott shot 54.7 percent on 2’s in conference play.
The second being the HC only played small ball when Temple was being outscored. When he did play small ball Temple closed the scoring gap or went ahead. HC didn’t realize that Temple was simply a better small ball team. As a result Scott played far less than he should have and Temple lost games.
With Scott playing few minutes, Temple lost to conference opponents. SMU, HConn, and Tulane. In the three losses the two previously mentioned starters shot poorrly. .
In the seconding meetings, with Scott playing 26 minutes plus, Scott scored 22, 25. and 16-points respectively, and Temple won all three games. In the three games, Scott shot a blistering 76 percent (19-25) 19-25 on 2’s. Scott had also been told about a flaw in this jump shooting form and corrected it.
As Temple playing SMU a second time trailed SMU by 17 points at half-time playing big, and the deficit would have been larger but for Scott coming off the bench and shooting well.
The HC went small ball in the second half and Temple by playing a pressure defense overcame the deficit and beat SMU in overtime. Scott scored 22 points in the game.
Scott’s outstanding performances in these three games raised the performance of the two poor shooting starters as Scott dished out 12-assists, and the two starters shot well.
In the UConn game, Scott came off the bench in the first-half with Temple trailing by five points. Scott helped lead Temple to tying the game in regulation.
With less than 30-seconds left in overtime and Temple down by three points, a time-out was called.
Up to that point in the game, Scott was 9-11 shooting two’s and, 0-3 on three’s. In the huddle, the players implored the HC to have Scott take the final shot. The HC agreed.
On the ensuing play, the PG brought the ball across half-court and passed the ball to Scott who was stationed with his back to the basket guarded by two UConn players. With 25-seconds remaining, Scott did a fake upward movement, then dribbled and turned around to face the basket, raised off the floor with two defenders having their hands up, as he shot the ball.
Over 5,000 home fans held their breaths as they watched the ball make a high arching majestic arc before laser-like swishing thru the net. They then went bonkers applauding as Scott cooly retreated to get back on defense. Like it was just all part of a day’s work. The game went into double overtime, and Temple went on to win. Scott led all scorers with 25-points on 10-15 shooting, and holding James Boukright to scoring 16-points on 6-16 shooting. Bouknight expected to be drafted in the first-round of this year’s NBA draft.
After the game, players swarmed around him as they walked into locker room with him smiling.
At a later, press conference UConn’s HC Hurley when asked about Scott’s outstanding performance, described Scott as a “dangerous” player
UConn went on to beat Houston, the AAC’s conference champion.
Later, with Scott playing substantial minutes, Temple lost Wichita State by 3-points. Scott shot 7-7 on two’s. If you add in those made two’s to the other three previously mentioned games, Scott shot a whopping 81 percent (26-32) on two’s in 4 conference games.
Scott shot at far lower percentages when he played fewer minutes and took fewer shots, and was shuttled in an out of games that prevented him from finding a rhythm.
Former alumni bb players who watched Temple scrimmages said Scott was Temple’s best player. After watching team practice, Kentucky HC John Calipari singled out Scott and told him he loved his game. In interviews, Temple players said Scott was Temple’s toughest player to guard.
At Portland State, Scott shot 42.5 percent on three’s in 12 of PSU’s 14 conference games
If you want to see more highlights of Scott playing PG. go to Portland State men’s bb Twitter, scroll all the way down following his name and video clips.
EMU’s HC Heath told the press he was going to play an NBA offense which is up-tempo, spread the floor NBA offense (with pick and rolls, back-cuts, inside-out game, fast breaks, etc.), and a man to man defense.
By installing an NBA offensive and defensive system, such is going to be huge draw to EMU as most players want eventually to play pro ball. We’ve already seen overnight the huge and immediate draw of new recruits to EMU. As both HS and college transfers alike want to attend EMU because HC Heath just left the NBA ‘s G-league, where the team he coached won the G-league’s championship.
Although some fans may prefer traditional college ball. professional bb is a completely different game players are yearning to learn and play in as soon as possible.
Fans will come to love the increase in scoring that HC Heath swill install.
As for the EMU’s roster, it’s wiser to wait till the final roster is complete before projecting starters nor assigning positions as the NBA today mostly plays without set positions.
Something special taking place at EMU.
(This post was last modified: 05-22-2021 07:38 PM by Miggy.)
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