NICEVILLE - Spend enough time around Patrick Harrington, and he’ll eventually share one of his favorite tenets of becoming a successful basketball coach.
Ultimately, says Northwest Florida State College’s third-year women’s head coach, the secret to winning basketball games can come down to five basic ingredients. Those elements include rebounding well, playing solid defense, making layups, converting on free throws and limiting turnovers.
“If you do those five things, you’ve got a chance to win some basketball games,” said Harrington. “That’s a recipe for winning 25 games a year.”
Perhaps no player on Harrington’s current roster exemplifies her coach’s philosophy better than Tavarsha Scott.
A 5-foot-11 forward from rural Louisiana, Scott is a living example of Harrington’s favorite mantra, infusing the No. 3 Lady Raid-ers with effort, defensive intensity and offensive efficiency every time she enters a game.
“Tavarsha typifies a lot of what we’re trying to do here. Let’s just look at what she did last weekend,” said Harrington, referring to Scott’s performance in a Sunday win over Brown College. “Eight of 12 from the field, six of eight on her free throws, nine re-bounds…and zero turnovers. That’s everything you want summed up right there.”
Sunday’s game was just a microcosm of what Scott has brought to the table during her two years in Niceville. Currently leading the 15-0 Lady Raiders in scoring (13.5 points per game) and rebounding (eight per game), Scott is also remarkably efficient. She also leads the team in field goal percentage (60.3 percent) and three-point percentage (37.5) while adding more than a steal per game on the defensive end.
For Scott, the big numbers are simple: She’s just playing ball.
“That’s how I play,” said Scott. “I always try to bring energy to the court, and I’ve always been a big rebounder. I’m just playing my style and it works here.”
Scott’s style of play has been a perfect fit for Harrington’s squad. Currently the first player off the bench for the Lady Raiders, Scott packs plenty of production into her time on the court.
“Tavarsha is a much more productive player at her position than probably anybody we’ve got in our program right now,” said Harrington. “She’s unselfish, plays within the framework of the team as well as anybody.”
‘I love it’
Scott’s journey has taken her from being a small school star in rural Louisiana to becoming a key contributor for the third-ranked team in the country. Originally signing to play with Southern University-Shreveport after graduating from Ringold High, Scott felt unfulfilled early in her career, admitting “It felt too much like home. I had to get out and explore the world a little bit.”
That exploration led her to Niceville, where she has played for the last two seasons. And she’s loved every minute of it.
“I like being here,” says Scott with a smile. “I come from a really, really small town so being somewhere with a lot of action is great to me. Everybody here thinks this is a small town, but they don’t know what they’re talking about. I think it’s great.”
With her two-year career at NWF State now heading into its home-stretch – the Raiders being Panhandle Conference play at Gulf Coast Saturday night – her focus will soon shift to the next step. While currently she’s received offers from the likes of Gram-bling State and interest from Tennessee Tech, Scott hasn’t garnered as much recruiting attention as her numbers suggest. Har-rington believes that will all change soon.
“It’s easy to look at her size and say ‘Well, she’s not big enough to play the 4,’ ” said Harrington. “But you can’t just look at her measurables and make a judgment on her. She’s not a player that’s defined by being 5-11. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
“She might not fit the bill of the prototypical power forward, but she will play four-year basketball somewhere. She’s too good not to.”
For now, though, Scott is content making her own contributions to NWF State’s already sterling season. After coming out of a moderately successful program in high school, the La. Native is enjoying the chance to play on an unbeaten, nationally ranked contender.
“I love it,” said Scott of playing for a winning program. “People just look at you different. When you tell them your record and who you play for, they really respect that. I take a lot of pride in helping this team win.”