Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus San Diego State on February 4, 2026 , Win , 57, to, 44
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/ Women's BasketballPhoto by: Elizabeth Tinajero
Coro: Scott takes challenge to start anew at GCU
8/10/2020 9:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro
Missouri High School Player of the Year puts trust in Miller to leave home
Carl Junction, Missouri, was wonderful to Katie Scott.
The southern Missouri town of about 8,000 people holds deep, supportive roots for her family.
The setting provided Scott with selfless values as she watched her parents work jobs that helped disadvantaged residents. The community tapped into her potential, raising a valedictorian and Missouri's girls basketball player of the year.
Southern Missouri also was her comfort zone, a place Scott was not ready to leave when she made the hardest decision of her life to attend college 80 miles east at Missouri State in Springfield. When that head coach left for another job, Scott needed to make that trying choice again and stuck with Springfield to pick Division II power Drury.
That coach, Molly Miller, had connected with her for years and wanted Scott to follow her to Phoenix as she became the GCU head coach in April. Even as Oklahoma entered with a late offer, Scott moved 1,200 miles west out of her comfort zone to join Miller and the Lopes.
Everything she wanted for her Division I basketball goals, a head coach and higher education came with a challenge to change.
"I've definitely had an issue with getting outside my comfort bubble," Scott said amid GCU summer practices. "When things don't come naturally, you want to give up. Being put in uncomfortable situations multiple times taught me that great things happen from unfortunate situations.
"I think GCU is an amazing situation. I'm so happy that things worked out the way they did. It was about trusting the process. I'm really excited for the personal progress I know I'm going to have at GCU."
Scott should give herself more credit for operating outside her comfort zone.
In her childhood, she always looked up to her big sister, Megan, in stature and basketball idolization. Because she gave up size to her older sister for years, she developed other skills to figure out how to score.
"Once she got taller than me, it was over," said Megan, who plays college basketball for MidAmerica Nazarene near Kansas City.
During Scott's sophomore year of high school, the team's starting point guard suffered a season-ending knee injury. With the skills she cultivated against her older sister, Scott's coach turned to his 6-foot-2 power forward to take over running the offense.
"Katie puts a little wrinkle on what we do and how we look that's hard to guard and prepare for," Miller said.
"She's just savvy. Her basketball IQ is really, really high. I don't think I've coached or watched a better post passer than her. She can do a little bit of everything from guard work to back-to-the-basket work. She's multi-tool. She can hit the 3 and use her size inside. It's a mismatch no matter who you put on her."
That is how Scott looked from her older sister's perspective since she took so naturally to the game as a kid. Two years separated them but it was difficult to hold off her adept ability.
Throughout grade school and high school, Scott was involved in Destination Imagination, a nonprofit organization that give students project-based challenges to build confidence while developing critical thinking and teamwork. It is appropriately called DI, sending Scott on the path to DI basketball.
"It helped my basketball IQ to think on the fly, which is necessary, especially when you're playing the kind of pace Coach Miller wants," Scott said.
Miller began recruiting Scott in eighth grade, when Curtis and Misti Scott's middle daughter hit a 6-inch growth spurt during her junior high years.
Scott played backcourt and frontcourt for Carl Junction High School teams that finished as high as second and fourth in the state before an undefeated senior season ended when the state semifinals were canceled because of COVID-19.
The Miss Show-Me Basketball winner had signed with Drury and Miller in November but faced a familiar circumstance after the season. Miller, the two-time Division II Coach of the Year, left her Springfield roots for a Division I program in Phoenix.
Two years earlier, Scott's older sister signed with Division II Pittsburg State and head coach Lane Lord, who then left for a Division I at WAC foe UT Rio Grande Valley. Megan elected to not follow Lord but then transferred after a season to Midamerica Nazarene.
Katie Scott's gut told her that she wanted to play at the Division I level and follow her trust in Miller.
"For that to come to fruition and see her end up under my tutelage was exciting for me because I'd sat at her games, got to know her as a person and her family," Miller said. "That's rewarding when a kid like that takes a chance because this is out of her comfort zone.
"She is trusting me to give her that positive college experience. To snag the Gatorade Player of the Year is huge for GCU. That's a bigtime recruit and a bigtime get. I think she's going to have a lot of success. For her, translating what she did in high school to college is going to look really different but our staff is really good at player development and we can mentor her as well."
Scott arrived at GCU this summer with another new scenario – knowing coaches but not players. Growing up as an elite player in Missouri, she was often among the same teammates and opponents. At GCU, she knew several of the coaches with Drury backgrounds and none of the players.
"Within the first week, I knew that they were awesome," Scott said of her Lopes teammates. "They were all welcoming me with open arms. It wasn't an easy adjustment but I don't know if I could've done it without such great teammates."
And then came the practices, which spun her mind and legs like a Missouri tornado with higher levels of talent and pace.
"When they say it's another level, that's underselling it," Scott said. "Everything is just 10 times harder. Ten times as much as expected of you. The pace with Coach Miller isn't the same as any other D-I pace. It's not just like going from high school to college. It's going from high school to Coach Miller. She's in a different league – a league of her own.
"It's understanding that it's all about this possession and letting go of your mistakes. It's a great way to play because we've become so much more positive. It is really about the present moment and making the best out of it."
Just like her unexpected but appreciated detour west to GCU.
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
The southern Missouri town of about 8,000 people holds deep, supportive roots for her family.
The setting provided Scott with selfless values as she watched her parents work jobs that helped disadvantaged residents. The community tapped into her potential, raising a valedictorian and Missouri's girls basketball player of the year.
Southern Missouri also was her comfort zone, a place Scott was not ready to leave when she made the hardest decision of her life to attend college 80 miles east at Missouri State in Springfield. When that head coach left for another job, Scott needed to make that trying choice again and stuck with Springfield to pick Division II power Drury.
That coach, Molly Miller, had connected with her for years and wanted Scott to follow her to Phoenix as she became the GCU head coach in April. Even as Oklahoma entered with a late offer, Scott moved 1,200 miles west out of her comfort zone to join Miller and the Lopes.
Everything she wanted for her Division I basketball goals, a head coach and higher education came with a challenge to change.
"I've definitely had an issue with getting outside my comfort bubble," Scott said amid GCU summer practices. "When things don't come naturally, you want to give up. Being put in uncomfortable situations multiple times taught me that great things happen from unfortunate situations.
"I think GCU is an amazing situation. I'm so happy that things worked out the way they did. It was about trusting the process. I'm really excited for the personal progress I know I'm going to have at GCU."
Scott should give herself more credit for operating outside her comfort zone.
In her childhood, she always looked up to her big sister, Megan, in stature and basketball idolization. Because she gave up size to her older sister for years, she developed other skills to figure out how to score.
"Once she got taller than me, it was over," said Megan, who plays college basketball for MidAmerica Nazarene near Kansas City.
During Scott's sophomore year of high school, the team's starting point guard suffered a season-ending knee injury. With the skills she cultivated against her older sister, Scott's coach turned to his 6-foot-2 power forward to take over running the offense."Katie puts a little wrinkle on what we do and how we look that's hard to guard and prepare for," Miller said.
"She's just savvy. Her basketball IQ is really, really high. I don't think I've coached or watched a better post passer than her. She can do a little bit of everything from guard work to back-to-the-basket work. She's multi-tool. She can hit the 3 and use her size inside. It's a mismatch no matter who you put on her."
That is how Scott looked from her older sister's perspective since she took so naturally to the game as a kid. Two years separated them but it was difficult to hold off her adept ability.
Throughout grade school and high school, Scott was involved in Destination Imagination, a nonprofit organization that give students project-based challenges to build confidence while developing critical thinking and teamwork. It is appropriately called DI, sending Scott on the path to DI basketball.
"It helped my basketball IQ to think on the fly, which is necessary, especially when you're playing the kind of pace Coach Miller wants," Scott said.
Miller began recruiting Scott in eighth grade, when Curtis and Misti Scott's middle daughter hit a 6-inch growth spurt during her junior high years.
Scott played backcourt and frontcourt for Carl Junction High School teams that finished as high as second and fourth in the state before an undefeated senior season ended when the state semifinals were canceled because of COVID-19.
The Miss Show-Me Basketball winner had signed with Drury and Miller in November but faced a familiar circumstance after the season. Miller, the two-time Division II Coach of the Year, left her Springfield roots for a Division I program in Phoenix.
Two years earlier, Scott's older sister signed with Division II Pittsburg State and head coach Lane Lord, who then left for a Division I at WAC foe UT Rio Grande Valley. Megan elected to not follow Lord but then transferred after a season to Midamerica Nazarene.
Katie Scott's gut told her that she wanted to play at the Division I level and follow her trust in Miller.
"For that to come to fruition and see her end up under my tutelage was exciting for me because I'd sat at her games, got to know her as a person and her family," Miller said. "That's rewarding when a kid like that takes a chance because this is out of her comfort zone.
"She is trusting me to give her that positive college experience. To snag the Gatorade Player of the Year is huge for GCU. That's a bigtime recruit and a bigtime get. I think she's going to have a lot of success. For her, translating what she did in high school to college is going to look really different but our staff is really good at player development and we can mentor her as well."
Scott arrived at GCU this summer with another new scenario – knowing coaches but not players. Growing up as an elite player in Missouri, she was often among the same teammates and opponents. At GCU, she knew several of the coaches with Drury backgrounds and none of the players.
"Within the first week, I knew that they were awesome," Scott said of her Lopes teammates. "They were all welcoming me with open arms. It wasn't an easy adjustment but I don't know if I could've done it without such great teammates."And then came the practices, which spun her mind and legs like a Missouri tornado with higher levels of talent and pace.
"When they say it's another level, that's underselling it," Scott said. "Everything is just 10 times harder. Ten times as much as expected of you. The pace with Coach Miller isn't the same as any other D-I pace. It's not just like going from high school to college. It's going from high school to Coach Miller. She's in a different league – a league of her own.
"It's understanding that it's all about this possession and letting go of your mistakes. It's a great way to play because we've become so much more positive. It is really about the present moment and making the best out of it."
Just like her unexpected but appreciated detour west to GCU.
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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