Friday, February 8, 2002
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SCOTT Salisbury is a man on a mission -- again.
BYUH center Salisbury
is the PacWest's leading
scorer and rebounder
By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comThe Brigham Young-Hawaii center missed two years of basketball to serve on a mission for his church, but it may have helped him with his current mission of winning the Pacific West Conference.
Salisbury is doing his part to close the three-game gap between BYUH and conference leader Montana State-Billings. Salisbury and the Seasiders can cut into that lead when they visit Hawaii Pacific, who is also three games behind, tonight.
For the Seasiders to beat the Sea Warriors, they will need a double-double from their 6-foot-8 center. That should not be a problem, as Salisbury, 22, has done it in 11 times in 21 games, a figure that leads the conference. He averages a double-double with 10.5 rebounds -- tops in the league -- and scores 15.6 points per contest, which is good for fifth.
He is not limited to scoring and rebounding though, as he is second in the conference in blocked shots and is in the top five in the "little man" categories of assists and steals.
That he is doing it all with a basketball this year is ironic, because for two years after his freshman season, he did nothing with the basketball. Salisbury was busy serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Dominican Republic.
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"A lot of people think (a mission) will be bad physically," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. "But over the long haul, I think it is good for an athlete. The maturity a kid gets spending that time serving other people makes him a better player. It is easy to get the game back. To have a player who is so mature is a coach's dream. It certainly didn't hurt Scott."It was almost ordained that Salisbury would be manning the middle for the Seasiders. When he was being recruited out of high school, BYUH did not have much competition for the Seattle Times all-state player and Washington's leading rebounder, because his mind was set on serving his church sometime during his basketball career. Wagner's position on sending players out on missions is no secret.
When Salisbury considered head coach Ken Wagner and BYUH, it took only a short talk with his father to find out what the coach's stand is on players leaving for two years and then expecting to return like nothing happened. Salisbury's father knew firsthand that Wagner had done the same himself.
Wagner and Mike Salisbury spent two years together on a mission in Monterrey, Mexico, then went their separate ways.
They came together when an assistant to Wagner was recruiting Salisbury. Wagner didn't even know he was recruiting his old friend's son, he just saw his name on a list and wondered if it could be the same guy.
Salisbury was not rewarded with a basketball scholarship by BYUH that year, partly because there was not one available and mostly because he didn't need one. His work in the classroom earned him enough academic favors.
But he did need basketball for his well-being, and walked on to the team. He won the job as backup center, became the starter after 19 games when the starter got hurt and held down the fort enough to get the Seasiders into the NAIA tournament.
Then he went on his mission for two years and came back to his starting job, leading the team in rebounds (7.2 per game) and shooting percentage (.562). Just halfway through his junior year, Salisbury has already jumped into the top five of Brigham Young-Hawaii's career rebounding list, and that is due to his performance this season in which he is on pace to have the second greatest rebounding year in the school's books.
And Salisbury is returning next year, when Wagner will be expecting him to still do it all, and to do it all the time.
"He just keeps getting better and better," Wagner said. "He should come back a better outside shooter because of his work ethic. He works on everything and works all the time."
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