3 From Deep   Pro Hoops Commentary With Unlimited Range

I’m sitting here watching the Villanova-West Virginia game. They’re both top five teams right now in what’s becoming quite obviously year in and year out the pound for pound best college basketball conference in American: the Big East. Right about now is when I start to care about college basketball. I typically follow Georgetown throughout the year because they’re the first team I ever truly loved and Maryland because I’ll never forget the day Len Bias died. Another story for another time. I don’t have  a choice whether to follow Duke or not. They’re sort of America’s team. I think of them as  the Dallas Cowboys of college basketball. Quietly neither of them haven’t won it all in a while but they’ll be back and they’re always at the very least relevant.

With the NBA on a relaxed schedule leading up to the mid-week All-Star break I decided to catch up on college hoops and to start paying attention in earnest. A new story is about to be told, a new name on the verge of being made. That’s what college basketball exists for, in my opinion. The NBA D-League can produce NBA talent. College basketball produces names and personalities that become part of us.

Scottie Reynolds is one of those potential names and personalities. He’s had an interesting and seemingly endless career at Villanova. From the beginning  he’s been the face of Villanova  basketball. He had several signature scoring outbursts early in his career that let us know he was, if nothing else, a prototypical Big East guard, which is to say slightly undersized and average athletically but battle tested and skilled. The question since his rookie campaign has been can his game translate to the next level. Watching him tonight and despite the outstanding overall season he’s having — most notably his shooting percentage is up to 49% — I still have my doubts. As I studied his game tonight I tried to pinpoint what’s missing for me in his game. He’s going to leave Villanova  one of it’s leading all-time leading scorers and assists men. He’s going to leave having led them to at least one Final Four and maybe a second. He’s going to leave having led them to it two winningest seasons in school history. But he’s also a guy who was only Honorable Mention All Big East last season. Say what you will about awards, they mean something in a conference like the Big East. They tell you who is really the beast of the East.

Reynolds is hard player to gauge because he doesn’t do anything that makes you say, “wow.” That’s just not a part of his game. He’s a scorer who doesn’t have elite scoring ability. He’s a smallish guard without blow by quickness. He’s a decent playmaker. He can’t physically dominant other players at his position. He’s not  a defensive stopper. He’s a college conundrum. When I texted Raz with the question, “Does Scottie Reynolds have an NBA future?” at 7:43:35 he responded, simply, “Randy Foye” at 7:43:46. When I asked JustIce the same question, he said “Chris Thomas is waiting for him in Spain.” Thomas had a strikingly similar career at Notre Dame from 2001-2005. He was also a Big East Rookie of the Year. He was also the face of his team from the moment he stepped on campus. He also flirted with the idea of turning pro early before realizing he was better off playing out his college career. Chris Thomas  never made an NBA team in part because he didn’t seem to improve through his college years (and probably peeked as a player his first and second season) but he has carved out a solid career for himself overseas.

Here’s what I know: Reynolds is a winner, and that means a lot. He’s always struck me as a guy who’s resilient. I look at Phoenix’s Jared Dudley during his Boston College days similarly. In college I just didn’t see how his game would translate to the NBA. He was slow. He didn’t have much athleticism. He didn’t have a position. All Dudley did was develop  a game that a number of NBA teams desperately need. He’s a glue guy who doesn’t make many mistakes, hits open shots, plays tough nosed defense on anyone and give it his all every minute he’s on the court . Now, as long as Dudley stays healthy, he should last a good 10 years in the league, maybe more if he catches a few breaks.

The obvious difference between Reynolds and Dudley is size. Reynolds is only 6’2″. Dudley is 6’6″.

Despite my gut  ”feeling” about him, though, it’s ultimately difficult to know what a player is made of in college. A guy can play on the right team, be in the right situation, what have you, and look much better than he is. The league is famously loaded with players who went to small schools or who weren’t the best players on their college teams. Indiana was famous for churning out system players who couldn’t excel in the NBA. For a while, Duke had a similar rap. Reynolds could be that that type of player.

To his credit, he’s continued to develop as a player and as a leader. Also, his leadership has led the Wildcats to improved records each year of his tenure. Last year they came close to winning it all. This year they’ve looked like a team primed for a run deep into the tournament. If that happens, and Reynolds shines like he did last year, he may convince some GM to take him in the second or late first round. There is precedent for this kind of surge. Winning titles boosted solid but unspectacular guards like Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves, Maryland’s Steve Blake and Duke’s Chris Duhon into legit pro prospects with legit NBA careers. The thing to keep in mind about all of those guys is that all three  knew their role and played their role. Reynolds would need to show that he can play a role on a team. If he can do that, his determination and  pedigree may give him an edge when a GM is deciding who to keep at the end of training camp. Once he finds a home, anything can happen.