Antwan Scott's long, hard road leads to home with Rams basketball

For fans of Colorado State Rams men’s basketball, Antwan Scott is a name they’ve come to know and love.

Scott, who’s in his second season with the Rams, is finally showing just how talented he is on the court. The redshirt senior, who’s wrapping up his Master’s degree in May, is at once one of the smartest young men on this current team, and at the same time, he’s also one of their top players.

Talk about student-athlete. He’s the definition of what Colorado State wants out of their athletes of any sport; an example on and off the court.

With Mountain West play tipping off today – 5 p.m. MT at Boise State – “Smooth” Scott averages 14.6 points per game, which is second-best on the team to the injured Gian Clavell. Scott’s also a strong rebounder (4.5 per) and plays well with teammates (2.1 APG).

While Colorado State fans are happy he’s in Fort Collins, it’s been a long, difficult journey for the 23-year old. After a noteworthy high school career in his native Wylie, Texas, Scott went to Ranger College and played JUCO ball for two years, earning Ranger their first conference title in 40 years as a sophomore.

He then moved up to DI with Idaho University, but then departed within his first year due to his mother slipping into a coma due to complications following a surgery.

“I was at Idaho University in 2012 and I just left school,” Scott told BSN Denver in an exclusive interview in December. “I was like, ‘I give up.’ I left school and went back home, took care of her. I was like, ‘I’m done with basketball.’ Some coaches kept calling me and kept calling me and I was like, ‘I’m done. I’m not going to do it anymore.’

“But there was one coach who really stood out to me, coach Price at Grambling State,” the guard continued. “He made a home visit and came to see my mom and it meant a lot to me. That let me know that he really wanted me.”

So, Scott transferred to Grambling and played there during the 2013-14 season. All the while, he was going home during weekends and staying next to his mom’s side in the hospital for days on end.

Because he only had to practice twice a week, “I’d be able to leave on a Thursday and return that Monday night,” he explained. “I spent most the weekends with my mom and most my teachers understood. And they had me on a lot of online classes. So I would stay home sometimes maybe a week, two weeks at a time just so I could be at the hospital with my mom all night. Spend the night at the hospital with my mom, not showering for like weeks.

“But, it was a blessing,” he said. “I wouldn’t give it back.”

Scott’s positivity through this trying time is truly inspirational. And it was the loss of his mom – along with the advice of those close to him – which helped turn him into a gym rat, a guy who will walk to the gym to shoot hoops if he can’t sleep.

And following all that work in the gym, the workhorse came to Colorado State last season. Of course, 2014 was a bit of a disappointment to Scott; he re-injured the broken foot he sustained the year before, which left him feeling “lost” and “empty.”

He’s worked his way back to being healthy, though, tirelessly toiling on his craft and now he’s impacting the Rams on a nightly basis.

The 6-foot-2 shooting guard’s breakout game this season came against Abilene Christian, where he played an astonishing 43 minutes during the double overtime affair. His six straight points in that second overtime gave the Rams the edge, but Scott wasn’t worried about soaking up the praise. He was honest about three straight lapses on defense which let ACU tie the contest late.

“If you go back and watch the film, I got scored on three possessions in a row,” he explained. “It was my defensive assignment that was blown that led them to be back in the game late in the game. And I need to find a way to help my team win…I wanted to redeem myself because I had three back-to-back defensive assignments I blew.”

That he did.

Two weeks later, Scott enjoyed his career-high game in a win over Arkansas-Fort Smith, scoring 23 points on five made 3-pointers, and added four rebounds with two assists as well.

“Smooth” has earned the nickname because he’s so smooth on the court; those nights when his shot’s on, it’s a thing of beauty, and he has a way of gliding down the lane for layups, making it look effortless as he scores.

Again, though, he was realistic about his play on the court that day and where he was lacking; on the defensive end.

“As crazy as it may sound, I had the worst defensive breakdown on the board. I had a great night offensively, but I had the worst defensive game as a player on the team,” he explained.

Anyone who’s watch Larry Eustachy’s teams at Colorado State knows they must do two things to compete and win. Those two are rebound and play defense. While they lack significant size, effort – like diving on the ground for loose basketballs and going all-out on the opponent’s end of the court to create turnovers – is what these Rams need.

Even though they started the season out 6-0, they weren’t playing Eustachy’s brand of basketball. Now, they sit at 8-5 and are starting to understand what their head coach wants out of them. Over the last three games, CSU has limited their opponents to an average of only 58.3 points per game, which is nearly 20 points less than their season average (77.4). And over those three contests, the Rams are 2-1, with the loss coming to Kansas State in Wichita.

“I say we can go as far as our defense takes us,” Scott said. “It’s all about the defensive end for us. That’s somewhere we’ve been lacking.”

“Smooth” admits the team’s biggest area of opportunity is on the defensive end of the floor, and one of their leaders, freshman Prentiss Nixon, is showing his older teammates how it’s done.

“Believe it or not, Prentiss is a guy – just how hard he plays – he’s a leader and people don’t know it,” Scott explained. “He sets the example. He comes in, he doesn’t care about on the offensive end. It’s all about defense to him.”

We’ve seen it all year from Nixon; taking charges, diving for loose balls – even over the scorers table and into the crowd – and giving that extra energy on defense. Nixon’s impressed others seniors, too, like Joe De Ciman, and much like Scott, the freshman is earning a lot of personal fans from Ram Nation.

In a few hours, Colorado State (8-5) takes on Boise State (9-4) in Boise, Idaho in the teams’ first Mountain West game of the season. With Clavell out for the season due to a broken hand and torn shoulder, Scott has stepped up as a scorer, both inside and out. He’ll have to continue to do so today and throughout the rest of the regular season if the Rams want to finish with a fourth straight postseason appearance, which the redshirt senior is hoping for.

CSU – Boise State tips off at 5 p.m. MT and can be seen on ESPN3 or Watch ESPN. Before and after tip-off, watch Antwan Scott tell his story in his own words here:

Get to know Antwan “Twannie” Scott

Music: “I like rap. I listen to Little Boosie every day. Boosie all I play. Reason I like listening to that is Boosie been through a lot of trials, tribulations in his life; losing his Dad at an early age, doing prison time, just being convicted for some crimes he ended up getting off of. He’s been through a lot and I can kind of relate to that. I’ve been through a lot.”

Food: “I love Mexican food. Before games, I try to eat pasta. But I love Mexican food. I haven’t found a good Mexican food place around here but I love On The Border, back home.”

Hobbies: “Just at the house, chillin’. Or getting in the gym. I love going to the gym, shootin’, listening to Boosie when I’m in the gym. I love watching football. A lot of people will be mad but my favorite team is TCU,” said the Dallas native.

Nickname: “Coach called me ‘Twannie’, I don’t like that. But, it’s cool. Coach (Ross) Hodge,” Scott said of where it came from.