BOULDER — How does a 6-foot-10 man disappear? It seems impossible. But, in a cruel blink of an eye and a painful wrench of his back, Josh Scott vanished from the NBA draft’s radar and fell off the college basketball map, taking the Colorado Buffaloes with him.
If it’s OK by you, Scott would like to throw his invisibility cloak in the closet.
“I’ve always had people doubt me, not believe in me. … I always look forward to proving people wrong, and somehow I always end up coming out on top,” Scott said Wednesday.
Scott came out of Lewis-Palmer High School, a local kid who dared to dream of doing more than make CU a basketball school; he believed the Buffaloes could become a legitimate national power.
Scott was touted as the Colorado program’s next NBA-worthy star, following the path he saw Alec Burks, Andre Roberson and Spencer Dinwiddie blaze since 2012.
Then last season happened. And it stunk. Scott hurt his back. The Buffs finished with a 16-18 record, a major bummer after three consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
“You will not hear excuses coming from me,” coach Tad Boyle said. “But the reality is: When you’re a program like Colorado and you lose three players in four years early to the NBA and your best player gets hurt two years in a row and you expect it not to catch up with you? Maybe you’re on drugs.”
Boyle ranks among the top 20 college basketball coaches in the country. He made the Coors Events Center a hot ticket and gave the Buffaloes the belief they belonged in the Big Dance every year.
“Last year was a down year. I don’t mind saying that,” Boyle confessed. “I feel like I failed last year. I think our players feel that way, too. That’s not a good feeling you want in the pit of your stomach when you go to bed at night.”
For Boyle, the urgency is to regain identity as a program here to stay in the fight for conference supremacy with Arizona and UCLA. The CU brand is not so solidly established it can afford a dip for two or three years without other schools taking over as the hot destination in the minds of recruits.
“Absolutely we have to prove that last year was an aberration,” Boyle said.
For Scott, the urgency is to demonstrate that if his health is solid, he is a solid NBA prospect. The truth, however, is Scott has been surpassed in the minds of many scouts by many big men projected to be average pro players, whether we’re talking Kaleb Tarczewski of Arizona or Zach Auguste of Notre Dame.
“Honestly, I think my body of work so far through my career puts me as a pretty dang good player,” said Scott, who did average more than 20 points and 11 rebounds during the final six games of his junior campaign, after his back finally healed.
A year ago, there was a sense of woulda-shoulda-coulda dread that followed the Buffs around like a dark cloud.
If only Dinwiddie had not declared for the NBA draft, where he was selected 38th overall by Detroit, CU would have been justifiably touted as one of the nation’s top 20 teams.
If Scott had a knee injury, there would have been a brace as physical evidence of his pain, when instead he gutted out a chronic back ailment as best he could and sometimes looked passive to observers unaware just how much the Buffaloes’ best player was actually hurting.
If Boyle had realized earlier that his locker room was suffering from a leadership void, the coach would have been more stern and demanding before any realistic possibility of an NCAA bid slipped away.
“I didn’t take the bull by the horns,” said Boyle, who now realizes by patiently allowing his Buffs time and space to work through their obvious shortcomings a season ago he tacitly endorsed the unwanted traits of a losing team. “I won’t make that mistake this year.”
What does Boyle expect for Scott as a senior?
“20 and 10,” Boyle replied with a laugh.
Twenty points. Ten rebounds. Every night.
If Scott can deliver, everything will again be all right for CU basketball.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or @markkiszla
