Scott Burrell

Courtesy of Inner-City Newspaper

The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team has a record of 19-8, led by head coach and ex-UConn assistant Tom Moore. One of his assistants is Scott Burrell, one of the greatest athletes in Connecticut history. The 43-year-old Hamden native (born in New Haven) was a dominant three-sport athlete when he attended Hamden High School. At the end of high school he was drafted 26^th overall in the 1989 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners. In an interview last year on adimeback.com, Burrell admits that he was very close to playing for Seattle. He signed a deal, but Seattle did not want him to attend college. Burrell was adamantly opposed to this, but his almost did not attend UConn. He was fully prepared to play football and baseball at Miami (FL), but UConn assistant Howie Dickenman (current head coach at CCSU) worked restlessly to convince him to play basketball at UConn. He was drafted again by the MLB after his freshman year at UConn when the Blue Jays selected him in the fifth round. Despite playing minor league baseball for Toronto for a couple summers, he began to develop his basketball skills. He compiled 1562 career points, becoming the first to do so. He is known for throwing a 90-foot pass to Tate George, who hit the legendary buzzer beater against Clemson to go to their first Elite Eight in 1990.

In 1993, he was drafted 20^th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1993 NBA Draft. This made him the only person to be drafted in the first round in two major sports, a title he still holds today. Though he only averaged 4.8 ppg as a rookie, he took a huge leap when he averaged 11.5 the next year. He finished third in Most Improved Player voting. He suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury, and then he suffered a shoulder injury 20 games into his comeback. His role was severely diminished, and this would be the case the rest of his career. He ended up bouncing around the last four years of his career, including a championship with the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls and a return to Charlotte in 2000-01. He had various stops overseas before officially ending his playing career in 2006. Immediately after his retirement, he took his current job as assistant coach at Quinnipiac. Though this is not a storybook ending, Burrell is content with the job. He loves being back home, he likes the facilities, and he respects coach Moore for his experience. Burrell earned his Bachelors degree in General Studies from the UConn in May 2010. He may pursue greener pastures at some point, but he is happy at the moment.