So long, Scottie Reynolds
March 1, 2007 12:07 pm by donaldAs a UConn fan, it hurts me to post this clip. Anyway, Hasheem Thabeet, meet Scottie Reynolds. He can play in the NBA, but you can’t (right now).
Mark my words: Scottie Reynolds is gone after this year. Corey Fisher, one of the top prep guards in the country is going to Villanova next year, so he’ll have the share the ball (and limelight) with him next year. As it is, Reynolds doesn’t stand much to gain from staying next year. He’s shown improvements each month of the season, culminating in his 40 point performance last night in a win over UConn. He’s a bit undersized to play in the NBA (kind of like Khalid El-Amin), and that’s not going to change next year. He would be smart to leave.
In non-Big East related news, last night I caught one of the best college basketball games this year — Texas A&M vs. Texas. Texas ended up winning in double overtime. The game had all the elements of a classic: in-state rivalry, new guard (Durant, Augustin) vs. old guard (Law IV), perennial power (Texas) vs. magical season (A&M). Every few years, a team comes along that captures the nation’s interest. In 2005, it was West Virginia and their run in the NCAAs. This year, it’s A&M for me — they remind me of UConn during their dream season.
Acie Law is a monster. We can argue about whether clutch performances exist or not, but I could not be more impressed by Law. With a few seconds left in regulation and A&M down by 3, he hits this ridiculous, fading three against double coverage.
Not to be denied again, at the end of the first overtime, down by three and with under a minute left, he gets his man up in the air, and launches, hitting nothing but net again, sending the game into double overtime.
And then, this ingenious play at the end of the second overtime. Down by 2 with a few seconds left, he needs to miss his last free throw intentionally, with the hope that a teammate rebounds it and scores.
Nothing new here, right? What’s clever is how he shoots the ball immediately after the referee gives it to him — the defensive players aren’t quite set, which gives A&M a slight advantage. I haven’t seen this before, and I like it.
[Addendum]: Then there’s this incident from the game (originally from here)…which is quite amusing.
Categories: Commentary, Connecticut, Villanova, donald
9 Responses to “So long, Scottie Reynolds”
What an insane thing to say. Do you know anything about Scottie Reynolds? Neither did the rest of the country until last night and all of a sudden he’s ready for the NBA? He is a fabulous player who will do great in the NBA, just not yet. As for sharing the limelight, he will follow Nardi’s lead and do what is best for the team. He is the consummate team player. He will adjust to whatever system Jay Wright puts in place for next year. Let’s not rush another “kid” to the NBA.
I agree, especially if you don’t know Scottie! The kid misses championship games to attend church, he’s not gonna fore-go a whole 3 years of his college career for the NBA. As we all saw last night he is a very talented kid on the court, however he has been praised even more for having a good head on his shoulders. I believe we’ll be seeing Scottie for another THREE years!
It’s not an insane thing to say at all.
I don’t know Scottie personally. So maybe he’ll stay for personal reasons. I’m looking at it from a profit-maximizing standpoint. If he continues to play at the level he has the last few weeks, it makes sense for him to go (except that maybe the draft is too strong this year).
The only thing that can happen to him next year is that he gets exposed for being a bit short and he doesn’t play significantly better. This has happened to many college basketball players (El-Amin, in particular).
Regarding Scottie, I don’t agree with your point of view. During his sophomore and subsequent years he can establish himself as a leader of a big east team, get his turnovers under control, mentor younger players, vie for BE Player of the Year, win a national championship etc. Following up this phenomenal freshman year with a dominant sophomore and possibly junior year would increase his value. How high do you think he would be drafted after this season? Not very. Lastly, he is not the sort of player who would be able to sit on a bench and that’s where he would be if he left this year and possibly next.
If he’s in the lottery after this year, he’ll be sacrificing millions of dollars if he stays, even if he’s the #1 pick a year later. The difference between the #15 contract this summer and the #1 contract next summer will be a few million, but the advantage of starting that clock now will be getting access to the first big deal one year earlier.
And there’s a much higher chance that Scottie’s value will either stagnate or decline rather than improve.
NBA franchises draft mainly according to a player’s potential…not according to what a player has actually accomplished during college. They like a player’s “upside.” Therefore, I don’t see how staying in college for four years is going to improve upon Reynold’s value. He has tremendous ability, he shows flashes of absolute brilliance, and he’s only a freshman! NBA scouts are salivating, I assure you.
So, given that he’d be a first round draft pick (which brings with it a guaranteed contract), it would be advantageous for him to strike while the market is hot.
Secondly, don’t even talk about him being the #1 overall pick in the NBA draft . It’s not going to happen. Over the last 25 years, there has been only one guard chosen #1 overall (Iverson in 1996). Every other #1 choice has been either a forward or a center! You forget that the NBA is a league built on size first, speed second. As a guard, he’d be lucky to be a top 5 pick…most likely, you’d see him as a top 10 choice.
Therefore, if his ceiling is a top 10 choice, and he’s around the 15th choice right now, would he risk another year in college to move up 5 or 6 spots? I doubt it.
Again, I don’t know Scottie, and if he wants to stay in college I’m sure he will. But the economics are simple. His stock is up, and therefore he should cash in his chips.
And you talk about winning National Championships like it were easy. If it were that easy, everyone would do it.
[...] Should referees really not call anything at the end of games? On the one hand, I understand how you don’t want the referees to just decide who wins a game. Yet, I find it strange that if refs behave in such a way, teams get away with more at the end of a game when possessions really matter than during a game, when possessions matter less. It seems a bit strange — the advantage gained by hand-checking in the last 10 seconds seems much bigger than the advantage gained hand-checking with, say, a full game of basketball ahead of us. The same goes for travelling and other incidental contact. And then there was the Acie Law incident from last week — he was clearly intentionally fouled. So which is it? Should the referees be extra careful at the end of games, or should they just let them play? I wouldn’t mind more referee intervention myself — at least on a level par with any other possession. [...]
[...] Some of us were packing his bags for him while others saw things more reasonably. It looks like Scottie’s back for another year as discussed on Let’sGoNova. Apparently one of the implications of Reynolds staying might be transfers. There’s just not enough minutes to go around. [...]
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