Even as arguably Villanova University’s best all-time player, Scottie Reynolds never seemed to get much respect. He even kept all of the press clippings and news articles that criticized his game and pinned them on his wall that he aptly called his “wall of disrespect.” All he did in his illustrious 4 year career at the Big East Conference’s basketball powerhouse of a program was score more than 2,000 points(falling only 21 points shy of Kerry Kittles’ school record), win Big East Freshman of the Year in ’07, be named a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award as a senior, make the AP All American 1st Team, and make one of the most memorable game-winning shots in NCAA Tournament history.
Scottie joined only Randy Foye(‘06), Kerry Kittles(‘96), and Paul Arizin(‘50) as the only other Wildcat players to earn 1st Team All American honors. His senior season was his best as he gained a bit of national exposure after leading Nova in virtually every offensive category with numbers like 18.5 ppg and hitting more than 40% from behind the arc. Apparently Reynolds had made the right decision by withdrawing early from the ‘09 NBA Draft and returning to school to help lead the Wildcats to another deep NCAA Tournament run which ended against this year’s tournament darlings, the St Mary’s Gaels.
Despite back-to-back lackluster individual performances in the NCAA’s, Reynolds stock was thought to be sky high after such an impressive 4 year career. Although not overly athletic, Scottie has proved to have the heart of a champion and has singlehandedly led his club to victory, doing whatever is needed on any given night. And being realistic, the 6’2 guard who was described by coach Jay Wright as “the face of Villanova basketball” was projected as a 2nd round pick by many draft prognosticators. But unfortunately his name was never called as he was then forced to earn a spot on a roster by showcasing his skills in the NBA Summer League with the Phoenix Suns.
After injuring an achillies tendon, Reynolds chances almost went up in smoke as he was forced to sit out the Suns first 2 games in Las Vegas. But Scottie came on strong during the final 3 contests by putting up averages of 10.3 ppg and 4.7 assists. Suns management took notice and officially extended an invite to Reynolds to their regular season training camp. Reynolds will be trying to make the team as the club’s 3rd point guard behind 2 time MVP Steve Nash and the young and exciting newcomer Goran Dragic. He is believed to have accepted the offer after also getting an invite from a few other NBA clubs including the NY Knicks.
With his diminutive stature Reynolds has had to shift his game towards being more of a distributor then scorer, which has to be a tough transformation for the prolific scoring machine. Suns Summer league coach Dan Majerle was quoted as saying that, “Scottie finally realized that his place in the NBA will have to be at point guard since there are not many 6‘2 shooting guards around the league.” Reynolds also hit the weight hard this off-season and added another 10 lbs to his frame in anticipation of all of the banging against the NBA’s bigger players for an 82 game season.
I’m happy for Scottie. He is one of the truly good guys leaving the college ranks. In the modern era, Reynolds is a true rarity in the NCAA, 4 year starter, model citizen, and college graduate. He deserves all of the good fortunes that the NBA has to offer, like security for his family by hopefully signing a multi-year deal. Hang in there Scottie, good things are in your future.
Check out a video compilation of Scottie Reynolds career highlights at Villanova:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
