Men’s basketball Head Coach Joe Scott spoke to a group of VIP DU student leaders at a reception in the Pub last week. The group consisted of leaders from the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, resident advisers, AUSA, DU Programs Board and the DU Spirit Squad.
“I want you guys to know you are important. Students are very important in college basketball. We came here to build a solid sustainable DU basketball program,” said Scott.
“We are going to work extremely hard to do our part, get good players and coach them. We are going to play in a certain manner that you guys are going to be proud of.”
The reception was just another part in the process of turning around a men’s basketball program that went a dismal 4-25 last season and was ranked second to last in the country out of the 336 division one basketball programs.
Scott has already added four members to his coaching staff for next season.
“I think the hardest part when you start is assembling your staff. You come out here and you are on your own and what you learn as you go through this and what you learn in life is you never do anything by yourself, I am not building this program, we are building this program.”
Scott has also been interviewed on radio and television during a Colorado Rockies game, participated in a roundtable on AM 950 “The Fan,” signed a recruit and will be heading to the Sun Belt Conference end-of-the-year meetings this week in Florida. All of this in just over a month after being tabbed the new head coach on March 21.
“When you see the product out on that court you are going to want to cheer for us. All we need to do is set in place the student section and get it going and build it together. It takes time to build a winning program. It takes time to build a good student section,” said Scott towards the end of his speech.
Scott is no newcomer to the process of re-building. He took over an 8-20 Air Force basketball program in the 2000-01 season and in the 2003-04 season finished with a 22-7 record and first Falcon NCAA tourney appearance in 42 years. After four seasons as head coach at the Air Force, Scott then spent three seasons in the same position at Princeton were he compiled a 38-45 overall record. In four of the seven seasons he has now served as a head coach his team has lead the nation in scoring defense.
“Our system is really just based upon solid fundamental skills. It is very easy to do what we do when you are fundamentally sound. All we have been working on are those skills, every guy has got to be able to dribble, pass and shoot no matter if you are 6’2″ or 6’9.”
The Pioneers are losing DaShawn Walker, Alex Cox and Antonio Porch to graduation and there are reports that junior guard Steve Wetrich will not be returning due to medical conditions. Also walk-on sophomore Brian Giometti is in the process of transferring to a division three school.
Despite the losses, DU will be welcoming four new players to the program next season with the possibility of one more student-athlete signing before the summer.
Joining the Pioneers will be 6-foot-9-inch forward Andrew Hooper (D’Evelyn High School), 5-foot-9-inch point guard Kyle Lewis (Kent Denver), 6-foot-5-inch forward Anthony Porch (Montbello High School) and 6-foot-7-inch forward Rob Lewis (Evangelical Christian High School). All four players reside from the state of Colorado.
“It has been busy, the main thing we have been trying to do is coach the players, get the guys to know who we are and who we want to become,” said Scott about his first month of the job.
The re-building process is never easy no matter what you are doing it in, but this process will hopefully lead to a loud and boisterous DU student section.
