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JUST THE START Commitment leads Aaron Scott to become one of the league's rising stars

When North Texas’ Aaron Scott arrived on campus as a 17-year-old during the summer of 2021, two things were clear. His potential was through the roof, but he needed to commit to the strength and conditioning program to fill out his statuesque frame.

Before and after practice Scott could be seen standing along the baseline eating two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinking a protein shake while holding his nose.

"I used to like PB and Js, Scott said. "Now they are nasty to me. PUTTING ON WEIGHT WAS ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS FOR ME LAST YEAR."

As the summer progressed Scott day-by-day learned the commitment it’d take to not just get stronger and earn playing time but be an all-conference freshman who contributed to a conference championship team.

Four games into his freshman season, Scott patiently waited for his opportunities. He played just seven minutes versus Oklahoma Christian in the season opener and only four minutes versus Buffalo the next game. At the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando against eventual national champion, Kansas, Scott hung with the Jayhawks in his limited minutes. He scored five points on just three shot attempts, had a steal and grabbed a pair of rebounds.

The success he had against Kansas impressed the coaches and earned him even more playing time the following day against Miami.

Scott played nearly 19 minutes versus Miami, grabbed seven rebounds — three offensive — and scored eight points.

“I think the Miami game was the turning point,” Scott said. “I played more than I usually did and produced more than I had, which gave me the confidence going into the next day against Drake.”

Needing a victory against Drake, one of the favorites of the Missouri Valley Conference, Scott came through to lead his Mean Green to the victory.

In the final seconds of the tightly contested game, UNT led by one and needed a defensive stop.

As Drake's would-be go-ahead shot clanked off the iron Scott soared through traffic and above everyone with two hands stretched high to grab the rebound and then hang on to it as they tried to rip it from his arms.

Scott then calmly drained two free throws to give North Texas a secure three point advantage.

The hard work was starting to bear fruit.

As the season went on Scott continued to grow and find ways to impact winning.

On Jan. 27 in the midst of a then six-game winning streak, North Texas seemed caught in the fog on the road at Southern Miss. But there to weather the storm was Scott as he willed UNT to the victory with a season-high 13 points and seven rebounds in a season-high 31 minutes.

In February when the 6-foot-7 freshman stood on the scale and saw 200 pounds he proudly stuck out his chest and made sure his listed weight was updated.

Scott finished his freshman season averaging over 15 minutes per game. As is expected, he had his ups and downs throughout the year but he was an important piece to a Mean Green team that won the 2022 Conference USA West Division regular season title, a program-record 25 games, a program-record 16 league games, a program-record 15 straight games, led the nation in scoring defense and earned its first National Invitation Tournament appearance and advanced to the second round.

For his success, Scott was named to the C-USA All-Freshman team.

“To think about where I started it was an individual highlight of mine that I’m most proud of,” Scott said of earning the all-league recognition. “It means I was one of the best freshmen.”