Science Hill High School

Roscelle Bullock-Griffin

Roscelle Bullock-Griffin 1994

 Looking back at how Roscelle Bullock-Griffin went about setting a Lady Toppers scoring record with 2,063 points, it all adds up. "I liked to shoot and we had point guards who'd pass the ball," Bullock-Griffin says with a chuckle. Not that the 6-foot Bullock-Griffin needed a guard to penetrate and pitch or drive and dish. Former Science Hill basketball coach Dwight "Greasy" Leonard says Bullock-Griffin could do it all during an era (1991-94) when Science Hill piled up the victories, too. Leonard's Lady Toppers went to the state tournament one season with Bullock-Griffin and went 29-3 in another season. "Roscelle played with some good posts when we had Lisa Gaitor and Leah Simpson, who were 6-2 and 6-1," Leonard said. "Roscelle was a 6-footer, too, but she could shoot the 20-footer, put it on the floor or post post up. Roscelle Bullock could do it all." Bullock-Griffin was the Northeast Tennessee Player of the Year and Big Ten Conference Player of the Year in 1994. Leonard, an avid Alabama fan, thought so much of Bullock-Griffin that he lobbied Auburn coach Joe Ciampi to sign her. Leonard had worked a couple of Ciampi's camps and convinced him to take Bullock-Griffin without seeing her in person. Bullock-Griffin played perhaps 10 minutes a game as a freshman averaged 3.9 points and 2.5 rebounds during two seasons. But it wasn't what she'd had in mind. "I wasn't the type who could work hard and then just sit on the bench and be happy,” Bullock-Griffin said. “And I knew Louisville had recruited me hard in high school.” Bullock-Griffin actually contacted East Tennessee State, but after detecting no interest, transferred to Louisville. It was the perfect fit, although being a mid-semester transfer and tearing an ACL in January of her senior year meant playing little more than two semesters during two seasons with the Cardinals. She scored 15 points during a 69-61 win against 7th-seeded Utah in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. She was voted Conference USA's Sixth Player of the Year after averaging 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds that season. Bullock-Griffin was averaging 12.3 points and 7.2 rebounds for Louisville her senior season, and had scored 22 points against Memphis in late January, before suffering the career-ending ACL tear. “Roscelle was some kind of basketball player and she’d really had a tough life coming up,” Leonard said. “I’ve always admired her.” Bullock-Griffin went on to work in the Conference USA media relations office in 2000-01, then was an assistant coach at James Madison and Louisville, where she now works as a claims analyst for Jefferson National Financial Services. Along with Leonard, Bullock-Griffin is quick to credit Science Hill booster Grant Trivette and devoted fans such as Novice and Steve Gross. “I had some ups and downs at Science Hill but I had a good career,” she said. “Grant Trivette is where it started for me. He coached me at Henry Johnson (fourth through the sixth grade) and we didn't lose a game.  “He was great at helping me in sports and in life. If I had to make a speech, 50 percent of it would be about Grant.”