Scotty Middleton, a 6-7 versatile swingman whom ESPN rated the No. 34 prospect in the country when he signed with Ohio State for 2023-24, has had two disappointing years, first with the Buckeyes and then at Seton Hall, but he feels like he is ready to flourish at Tulane as the linchpin of a four-player transfer portal class that includes Georgetown transfer Curtis Williams, Oral Roberts transfer JoJo More and well-traveled 7-0 center Davion Bradford. I talked to him Thursday about why he chose Tulane and what he thinks the potential of the team is under Ron Hunter among other topics.
On why chose Tulane:
"Well I was talking to a few schools, and me and (assistant) coach (Sean) Mock got on a call. We started to break down the whole process and what it was going to look like and things like that. So me and my brother talked a little bit more, and then I went on a visit, got on campus my first time in New Orleans, and just the atmosphere, the people. They lost a few key pieces, so they needed to add a few key pieces back to the team to get over the hump they had last year. This team is hungry. A lot of the returning players are hungry to win. There's a lot of leadership and a lot of veteran guys that have been on this team and been in college basketball for a long time. Coach Hunter has been coaching for 39 years (actually 38 since he first became an assistant. This is going to be his 40th season (actually the 39th), so there's a lot of experience behind that. That was pretty much the decision right there. I just love it here."
On potential team has:
"The sky's the limit. This team is only limited to what we put on ourselves. We've got a lot of veteran guys like I said earlier with a lot of experience, and guys are hungry. You could sense it in the first week of workouts. Guys are hungry and enjoy to be together and coming back to the gym and doing all the little things. That's one thing coach Hunter preached a lot--to just do the little things better, and then all the big things will handle themselves. That experience means so much to college basketball now, so to have that experience of Rowan and Asher and Gregg and Percy and KJ, all those dudes coming back and kind of just helping us transfers come in and settle in right away. Those guys are just preaching to us every day to win. They won last season, but they didn't go as far as they wanted to go. The loss (to Memphis in the conference tournament) kind of left a bad taste in their mouths that they don't want to go through that situation again, so they brought in a lot of versatility to kind of have multiple guys just doing everything. Different guys at different positions and things like that."
On how he describes his game:
"My two years in college I haven't shown enough of my true game and what can I really truly do, and that's one thing I want to show more this season and kind of just blossom and tighten up my offensive skillset and my defensive mindset, too. I can get better on both ends, but I feel my game is somebody who I'm just a basketball player. I know how to play the game. You can put me at the 1 through 5 and I know how to excel at all those positions. I love basketball. I enjoy being here. I enjoy being in the gym every day with those guys and just competing. I love when it's hard. I love to compete, so this school is the perfect place to be."
On Seton Hall having really rough year (only two wins after December, and both were in overtime):
"It was tough for everybody. We all came to Seton Hall with one common goal to win. I give props to my teammates and coaches and the whole university to be honest for not giving up on us. We hit a rough patch, but we just didn't give up. Every night we came out to compete, and we just gave it our all. Even though we didn't have the best season, we left it all out on the court together."
On how much he wanted a place with winning attitude:
"Every team is kind of different. Every team every year is different because of the portal is different now, so you have to recruit year to year now. In the portal you have to go to a school that just fits you and fits your personality. The people around have to fit you, so this school has so many good people around that just want to see you excel. Whether you're scoring 30 points a game or you can't hit a shot, these guys are going to support me and my family regardless of whatever happens on the basketball court. That makes your job a little easier when you have people like that in your corner supporting you like that. It just makes you want to go out there and play harder."
On the biblical quote from John 13-7 he wrote in his commitment tweet to Tulane: "You do not understand now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
"That is an actual bible verse that sits with me a lot because God doesn't tell us where we're going or getting there or how long it's going to take us to get there or how hard it's going to be to go there, but he promises that he's going to show us the way. Me just relying on that faith that God is going to work everything out, these past two years of my college career haven't been perfect, but I learned and I've developed as a person. That's the most important thing to me, is just keep growing, like coach Hunter tells me day by day, just keep stacking days. That bible verse means a lot to me and the people around me. I tweeted that to show them that we might not know how we're going to get there or what's going to happen, but God has a way for us and has a way for everybody."
On what he does best on court:
"Communicating. That's a big part of it. Just putting my teammates in the right spots. All together we are getting used to each other now. I'm just learning. I'm asking the older guys questions and just being a sponge with all the coaches, trying to watch as much film as I can on the team. Just building that relationship early and building that bond as a unit."
On when they started team workouts:
"We started Monday as a team."
On familiarity with Georgetown transfer Curtis Williams:
"Man, it's been amazing to have that guy on the team. When I committed here, we wanted to get him, so he came on a visit. I was just super excited to have a guy like that on the team who is just hungry to win, hungry for the opportunity and knows that he's blessed to be here. We're grateful for the opportunity, but we can't take it for granted anymore. We're juniors now, so we have the urgency. It's good to have a brother like that in my corner that I can rely on. When things aren't going good or things are going good, I can rely on Curtis as a brother to have a shoulder to lean on."
On trying to learn the matchup zone:
"Like I said, just watching a lot of film of the team before we got to campus. I'm just learning every day, just incorporating those into workouts. The more you watch the film, the more excited you get because you'e got guys like me, Curtis, Rowan, Asher, you've got the speed, you've got the length, you've got all of these intangibles, so putting that together is going to be super exciting to be honest with you."
On goals for team:
"I try to live every day day by day and just enjoy every moment for the moment because I know that I'll never get this moment back, so I try not to look too far in the future, but the ultimate goal is to win a national championship, and that's everybody's goal on this team and this program, to excel at a high level, but there has to be so many little steps that we have to take every day and keep stacking days. If we keep stacking days, the sky is truly the limit."
On his impressions of New Orleans as Miami native:
"It gave me kind of a Miami vibe. Good people. I was walking around campus and people were just talking to me asking questions and making jokes and things like that, so it's exciting to see. People were just interacting with you not even knowing you. Once I stepped on campus, I felt the family atmosphere right away. It was hard to not see it and not feel it."
On high school career:
My freshman year I was in Miami, and then COVID happened, so I went to New Jersey at St. Patrick's and then from there I had a really good year, so I transferred to Sunrise (Christian Academy) for my last two years of high school. It just kind of made my game advance because I had a lot of good players on my team, but we had to jell together fast. That's kind of the same in the portal. Once you get to school, you have to adjust to that system. I look at it like NBA players can get traded and tomorrow they have to learn the whole playbook and play a game, so for me, I'm blessed to be here. I'm super grateful to coach Hunter and coach Mock reaching out to me and giving me this opportunity. I try to smile as much as I can and enjoy it as much as I can every day."
On how much he feels this is right fit:
"To answer that question I go back to my (John 13-7) quote. My freshman year (at Ohio State) I thought things were going to be different. My sophomore year I thought things were going to be different, but it didn't work out. God has a plan. I know that. We may not know what it looks like now and we may be a little nervous, a little scared, but I just try to wake up every day and be grateful. I tell God what I'm grateful for. its all the little things. We are able to play the game we love. Some people would kill for this opportunity to be here and play the game that they love, so I just try to be as grateful as I can."
