Published: January 22, 2009 11:23 pm      

MSU guard gets more than minutes

Daniel Scott’s name might not register even with the most ardent Mountain State University fan.

But don’t underestimate Scott’s importance to the NAIA Division I No. 4 Cougars.

“We do exit interviews every year with our seniors,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “Ninety percent of the seniors last year said that Daniel Scott was their best teammate. I think that says something about the kid. On and off the court. He wasn’t getting a lot of time, but he appreciated being a part of a national championship run.”

Scott isn’t exactly the team’s 12th man.

But there are games, even stretches, where Scott doesn’t leave the bench.

This season Scott has appeared in nine games. He has scored seven points and has five rebounds, with highs of five points against Morris and three rebounds against Virginia Intermont.

And it isn’t like Scott can’t play.

At his junior college, Cosumnes River (Calif.), he played 40 minutes a game. In high school, he was a 32-minute-per-game guy.

So, to not be playing more than he is has to be a challenge, at very least.

“It was an adjustment when I got here,” Scott said. “I was playing every game, the whole game, in high school and at my JUCO school. But the way I see it, I would rather play on a team that is winning and sit on the bench than score 30 points and play on a losing program.”

Besides, even if he isn’t getting minutes, he is getting something more valuable from his Mountain State experience.

In May, Scott will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.

He will be the first member of his family with a college degree.

“My parents are proud of me,” Scott said. “My mom graduated from high school. I’m not sure if my dad did or not. Some of my uncles went to college, but they didn’t finish. So it’s a big thing. I want to be a good example for my nieces and nephews. I want them to know that you can go to college and finish and earn a degree.”

Scott sees his role on the MSU team as that of a leader.

“I try to keep everybody together, let the young guys know what it’s like to play in the national tournament,” he said, calling the run to the 2008 NAIA national title game the highlight of his career. “A lot of guys haven’t played in that type of atmosphere. To be there was a great thrill. We don’t want a second-place ring this year, we want the gold ring. I try to explain to the guys what it’s like. There’s nothing like that.”

Scott, a guard, said he had a chance to go to Wichita State out of his JUCO school.

But he played the waiting game, hoping for a chance to go to Monterey Bay, a Division II school in California.

But it didn’t happen.

“That was a lesson,” Scott said. “I thought I was better than I really was.”

Scott became aware of MSU from a friend from his old high school in Memphis, Reynardo Curry, who played at MSU in 2003 and 2005.

“I talked to ’Nardo and he told me this was a winning program,” Scott said. “I wanted to go somewhere that was a winning program. When I visited, coach told me it was between me and another player for the last scholarship and he would call me. When he told me, I jumped on it. This experience has been better than I ever imagined.”

“It was close, and I think I was leaning the other way,” Bolen said. “But when I called his JUCO coach, one word kept coming up again and again: Winner. ‘Coach he is a winner. He is a winner on the court. He is a winner off the court.’ After talking to coach (Dave) Barksdale and coach (Artis) Mattox, we got on the phone and called Daniel.”

And that scholarship, while it hasn’t led to a lot of playing time, has led to a bachelor’s degree.

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com