"We will always keep working" -- Scott-Grayson ready to lead Tigers in 2021-22

At first, Mom didn't get her way.
 
Makeisha Scott wanted Honesty Scott-Grayson to be a cheerleader. She wanted Honesty's brother, Tyreek, to be a football player.
 
"I wasn't really going for that," Honesty Scott-Grayson said. "So one day my brother and I went up to my mom, and we were like, 'This is what we want to do. We want to play basketball.'"
 
Nearly 20 years later, both Scott-Grayson children made it to the Division I ranks. Tyreek played three seasons at UAB and will spend one final year as a graduate transfer at Northeastern. And Honesty is set to begin her third season at Auburn, her second where she can play for the Tigers.
 
The journey to the Plains was a winding one that took the 5-10 guard from her hometown of Manchester, New Jersey, to Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to a season at Baylor, and finally to Auburn in August of 2019. And a couple of other stops in between.
 
In middle school she enrolled at Life Center Academy, an independent school, where she was immediately given an opportunity to compete for the school's varsity team. That turned heads in the region and gave her the spark to start seriously pursuing basketball as an avenue to the next level.
 
"Playing for Life Center really gave me exposure," Scott-Grayson said. "That's when I thought I could really make something out of this. I was just trying to get my name out there. And I was so young, and everybody was wanting to see what this middle schooler is going to do against high school players. So that pushed me even further."
 
When it came time for high school, she began her career at Riverdale Baptist in Upper Marlboro, Md., transferred to Paul VI High School in New Jersey for her junior year, then back to Riverdale as a senior. In all, from the sixth grade through her senior year, she changed schools seven times.
 
"I was surrounding myself with people that really had my best interest at heart," she said. "And they were willing to help me get to where I needed to be, and I knew I wanted to play college basketball."
 
By this point, Mom had long since gotten over wanting her daughter to be a cheerleader.
 
"My mom played a big part in doing that," she said. "She was really like my manager. She was there by my side all the time, telling me what's right and what's wrong and what I need to do to get where I am now."
 Honesty Scott-Grayson scored a career-high 30 points in Auburn's game against Missouri on Feb. 7, 2021.

A McDonald's All-American in 2018, she signed with Baylor as the nation's No. 5 overall recruit according to Prospects Nation, No. 18 by ESPN.
 
 "Everywhere I went, I got a lesson from it," she said. "And although it didn't work out at Baylor, I was blessed to come to Auburn my sophomore year. Ever since then, I've just been trying to be a better me. I'm just trying to do the best I can to be the best that I can."
 
When looking to transfer, Scott-Grayson considered moving back to Maryland or New Jersey to be closer to home. But Auburn's proximity to Birmingham and UAB, where her brother was playing, gave Scott-Grayson a great reason to choose the Tigers. Not the least of which was Mom wanting to be able to visit both of her kids easily.
 
"That played a big part," she said. "I could be close to my brother, I could see him when I want to. My mom said that I'd be near my brother and if I went to Auburn, I'd be able to see him. So that really made a big impact on my decision."
 
The one-time transfer exception rule coming about a year late for her, Scott-Grayson had to endure a frustrating year in 2019-20 where she could only practice and watch as her teammates competed.
 
"It was challenging for me," she said. "Hoopers want to hoop, right? So just only being able to practice, it was really hard for me to get used to. But I was really looking more at the big picture – like, what am I going to get out of it? This was my time to develop as much as it was time to create chemistry with the team. I was just trying to pinpoint the positives instead of dwelling on the negatives."
 
Finally, on Nov. 25 of last year, Honesty Scott-Grayson got to put on an Auburn uniform for the first time and step on the court with her teammates as the Tigers opened the 2020-21 season with an 82-41 win over USC Upstate.
 
"I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous," she said. "I hadn't played in a long time. I was still trying to get in the swing of things. Those first couple of games, it was a little rocky and I was questioning myself – like, will I ever be the same?"
 
She cracked double-digits for the first time with 14 points in the season's third game, a win over Gardner-Webb. But once SEC play began, things really took off. A 23-point night in a gritty Auburn performance at Ole Miss was her first of 12 straight games in double-figures. She would go on to average 16.7 points/game in conference play, 12th-best in the SEC.
 
But her biggest performance of last season came Feb. 7 against Missouri where she scored 30 points, a career-high and the first 30-point game by an Auburn player at home in nearly six years.
 
And once again, Mom was right there.

"Props to my mom," Scott-Grayson said. "The night before the Missouri game, she worked me out until like 10 p.m. She let me know what she wanted to see. And the woman knows the game. I'm very grateful for her. She made me. She got me prepared for the game. I felt like that 30-point game was her doing."
 
As the page turned to a new season and a new coaching staff in place for the Tigers, Scott-Grayson's personal goals continue to be improvement and a push toward the professional ranks. And she believes the new coaching staff will be a big part of the process to get her there – as well as get Auburn's program on the road to competing at a championship level.
 
"This staff coming in, I've learned a lot from them," she said. "I'm grateful for this coaching staff, they really make me feel wanted, and I feel like they have our best interest at heart. I feel like they're going to bring the best out of all of us whether we like it or not.
 
"For them to have that type of impact in such a short time, it means something. We will always keep working. We've got to get things right."
 Honesty Scott-Grayson celebrates with Unique Thompson after an and-one opportunity in the Tigers' game with Texas A&M on Jan. 28, 2021.