Surely this isn’t the way that former Villanova stand-out Scottie Reynolds had hoped to start his professional career. Reports out of Europe are coming in that the former 2,000 point scorer has left his 2nd division Italian League team Prima Veroli because he is homesick. Maybe he misses Philly’s famous soft pretzels or their juicy artery clogging cheesesteaks?
All joking aside, after becoming the first NCAA All American to go undrafted, Scottie chose to take the guaranteed payday overseas rather than try and earn a roster spot on an NBA team. The 6’2 scoring combo guard impressed in the Las Vegas Summer League averaging 10.3 ppg and 4.7 assists and even was extended an invite to Phoenix Suns training camp.
Many teams passed on drafting Reynolds because of a lack of athleticism despite playing major minutes as an unquestioned Nova team leader for 3+ seasons in the always rough-and-tough Big East Conference. His senior season helped to put him on the national landscape by putting up averages of 18.5 ppg and hitting on more than 40% from behind the arc. He even is part of NCAA Tournament lore by making one of the greatest game-winning shots in tourney history when he almost single-handedly knocked off Pitt to help the Wildcats advance to the Final Four in 2009.
Now his basketball future is in doubt since he has virtually no chance of landing on an NBA roster back in the states since outside of any major injuries occurring, all team rosters are set. His best option has to be hope of latching on with an NBA team who immediately sends him to their D-League affiliate and earns a call-up or a 10 day contract. One can always hope things work out as well as Sundiata Gaines journey last season which took a similar route of that of Reynolds where he went undrafted out of Georgia, played professionally in Italy, then earned a call-up from the D-League, before he promptly nailed a game-winning shot to help the Jazz beat the Cavaliers back in January.
The whole situation seems a bit confusing since Scottie was reportedly playing well as the team’s 3rd leading scorer, putting up 12.3 ppg, 2.5 assists, and 2.3 steals, despite struggling a bit with the international 3 point line, making only 26% on treys. The altered arc perceivably takes away one of Scottie’s bread-and-butter shots…the corner three. In his defense, it also has to be tough when you don’t speak the language, can’t communicate with teammates and coaches, and are thousands of miles away from family and friends. Reportedly even Brandon Jennings struggled with being away from home 2 seasons ago. He only had ex Texas stand-out Jarrius Jackson as an American teammate that also speaks English.
Hopefully Scottie has a plan in his return to the States and doesn’t drift off into anonymity like so many other former college stars. That would be a shame because he was one of the college game’s good guys who was a model citizen and 4 year graduate. He deserves nothing but the best. Good luck to you Scottie, we’ll be keeping tabs on you.
Check out a video of Scottie Reynolds’ life story, played on CBS during the 2010 NCAA Tourney:
Update: Scottie was recently drafted(Nov. 1st) as the #13 pick in the 2010 Developmental Draft by the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA D-League. The 66ers are the D-League affiliate of the OKC Thunder.
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.
