At the end of Ritchie McKay’s first season back in Lynchburg, he was short on players and desperately seeking to turn around a program that was coming off five consecutive losing seasons.
The Flames were preparing to enter the 2016-17 season with just six scholarship players returning, so there were plenty of roster spots available. When Liberty assistant coach at the time Omar Mance received an email from a member of Liberty’s faculty about her son, the Flames’ coaching staff paid attention, but didn’t have high hopes.
“I remember Coach Mance said we got an email from a lady that teaches here about her son,” McKay recalled recently. “I said, ‘Oh, great.’ I thought he was going to be 5’11”. We didn’t even know when he came to visit if he wanted to be close to home because he had never spent a day in Lynchburg. We thought he might be coming to visit just so he could see his mom and dad.”
The email was from Christy James and she was talking about her son Scottie who had spent the 2015-16 season at Bradley where he was playing less than 10 minutes per game and was looking for a fresh start. After the coaches reviewed his film, they brought him in on an unofficial visit.
“I really loved it,” Scottie James said of Liberty. “I didn’t check out anywhere else, I just knew this is where I was supposed to be.”
McKay also leaned on a long time friend, Tom Ryan, who recruited Scottie really hard to Division II Eckerd College near the James’ home place in Florida.
“I asked Tommy about him,” recalled McKay. “He said, ‘Yeah, I played with his dad in the old man’s league. Coach, he’s good enough.'”
It was a conversation between McKay and Scottie that convinced the two they should team up for the next few years.
“The vision Coach McKay told me, his belief in me, that was really the turning point for my decision,” said James. “When I first came here, I wasn’t super high on the school honestly. Then, I met with Coach McKay and saw everything Liberty had to offer and it was a no-brainer from then.”
After Scottie decided to transfer to Liberty, it didn’t take long before McKay and his staff realized they had a potential star in the making.
“Midway through his redshirt year we kinda thought, ‘Yeah, he’s different,'” said McKay. “You just don’t get guys that can play that continuously, with that kind of effort, and not get dissuaded. Of course, he will get fatigued, but he can take a hit and still go and get it. The next time down, he’s going to be the same pursuer of the rebound.”
Scottie had to sit out the 2016-17 season, as the Flames began to find their way under McKay’s tutelage, winning 21 games, the first of four straight 20+ win seasons behind a young group of would be Liberty stars in Lovell Cabbil, Caleb Homesley, Myo Baxter-Bell, and Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz.
Once he got on the court the following year, the rest of Flames Nation began to quickly realize what the Flames had in the 6’7″ big man as well. In his second game with Liberty, James grabbed 14 rebounds as he helped the Flames to a win over Wake Forest. Just a couple weeks later he rattled off three consecutive double-doubles when he averaged 15.6 points and 11.6 rebounds. He finished his redshirt-sophomore season a second-team All-Big South selection after shooting 61.6% from the field, 10th best in the country to go along with his 13.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. He led Liberty to the Big South Tournament championship game as he averaged 17.3 points and 12 rebounds in the three game tournament.
Liberty has advanced to the conference tournament championship game every season he’s been eligible, and the Flames hope to keep that trend alive this season. In just three seasons, he’s been able to etch his name among the Liberty greats. Entering the final week of the regular season, Scottie ranks 17th on Liberty’s all-time scoring list with 1,276 points. He’s the program’s all time Division I leading rebounder with 852, just 18 boards behind Willard DeShazor for 4th place among Flames from all levels.
James is a huge fan of LeBron James, and if you have paid close enough attention over the seasons you can see some similarities. The way Scottie blows into his hands before and during games, some of his tomahawk dunks are very similar to LeBron, and who can forget all the poor Big South and ASUN opponents he has put on a poster during his career?
“Coming out of high school I was really confident,” said James. “I didn’t get much playing time at (Bradley), so that hurt my confidence a little bit. I was just hoping I could help the team win and obviously we have gotten a chance to do something special.”
Not only did Scottie get to play in front of his parents, he also got to play alongside his best friend and brother, Micah, who has spent some time as a student manager with the Flames. Micah transferred from Liberty to give playing a basketball a shot, but he returned this semester to watch the end of his brother’s collegiate career.
“Having a legitimate inside presence like we do in Scottie has really helped our cause,” said McKay. “I think he’s really improved too. I think the redshirt year, his commitment to individual development, his selflessness in our guys and intentionality in his inclusion in our system, along with getting married, have all helped his growth. Now, he’s put himself in a position where he will play for money.”
He’s part of a senior class that helped turn this program from a laughing stock of Division I basketball to a mid-major program that is mentioned among the best in the country.
“Scottie’s impact on our program has been immense,” said McKay who officiated Scottie’s wedding this past summer. “It’s measurable in his statistics, his efficiency, but I also think his example in terms of the way he empties his tank, his relentless pursuit of an offensive rebound, of a basket, of a shot block, of a dunk. I just think he’s been, in a lot of ways, the guy that could really inject a great level of enthusiasm because of how hard he plays. Scottie has certainly been a catalyst for our ascencion. It doesn’t happen as quickly without him.”
