Arrivederci for Now, Scottie Reynolds

It's not farewell, Scottie Reynolds, it's only arrivederci.

Reynolds, the former Villanova star and NCAA tournament hero, will spend next season with a second-division Italian League team instead of living the NBA life, debating about which headband best suits his personality and cavorting with Kardashians.

Reynolds had already made a dubious bit of history as the first All-American not to be drafted in the NBA since the league's merger with the ABA in 1976, and so the man who gave us four years of leaners in the lane is heading to the country that gave us the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

But it's not goodbye.

Maybe it's that college players essentially ply their trade for free and seem more relatable than their multi-millionaire NBA counterparts, or that participate in the only sporting event the entire nation watches outside of the Super Bowl, but college basketball stars have a way of taking up residence in the public imagination and, like any good sixth or seventh-year senior, never quite moving on. Players like Fennis Dembo, Randolph Childress and Steve Wojciechowski all are all still shorthand for something in sports, even if none of their NBA careers lasted longer than a Rick Pitino, uh, pregame speech.

Scottie Reynolds will be no different, even if he never sets foot on an NBA court.

At Villanova, Reynolds played the game the way Rocky Balboa boxed, head-first, with the general disregard for his body that a demolition derby driver might have for his front fender, but usually victorious in the end.

Over four years, he became the school's second all-time leading scorer, carired the Wildcats to the first Final Four since Rollie Massimino did it "Family Style" on the Main Line in 1985, and recorded one of the greatest highlights in Elite Eight history when he dashed down the court in the final five seconds against Pitt to hit an improbably soft runner in the lane to advance to the Final Four.

Tyus Edney would've been proud. Everyone else was just flat out impressed.


His senior year ended with a benching against Robert Morris in the opening round of the NCAA tournament and a second-round upset loss to 10-seed St. Mary's as a No. 2 seed, but Reynolds won't be remembered for the sour finale as much as the mixed martial basketball resume he left behind.

Reynolds will be remembered for nights like January 11th in Freedom Hall.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino wore a white suit that was one mint julep away from a William Faulkner novel or one feathered hat away from a Starsky & Hutch guest spot that night .

Yet somehow Reynolds would be all that was talked about afterward.

It was a tough guy effort even for the Big East. Reynolds scored a season-high 36 points on 9-of-10 shooting, 16 in the final 6:05, finished one forearm shiver away from being an body double in "Raging Bull," and lifted the Wildcats back from a 17-point deficit to win 92-84.

With Reynolds, it wasn't the unexpected. It was what was just the game plan.

"He brought us to another level," then teammate Taylor King said that night. "He did an unbelievable job. That's why he's our leader."

The final punch, even if it was a halfcourt dash, always seemed to belong to Reynolds.

The NBA, of course, has no place for a guy who makes his teammates better, is tougher than a trigonometry final and has exceeded expectations at every stop of his career. Who needs that sort of track record when you can have Daniel Orton, who almost averaged four points per game at Kentucky, or a post player named Tibor who "doesn't want to play in the NBA for a few years" according to his scouting report?

The NBA will always care more about how college players fill out an UnderArmour shirt in drills than a stat sheet and, if the old game show "Let's Make a Deal" were still around,, Monty Hall would have to work hard not to run out of mystery boxes instead of proven college players. Sure, Reynolds may only be tall enough to be an average-sized NBA two-guard if platform sneakers come into vogue, but height doesn't always trump heart. And it sure as heck never stopped Scottie Reynolds.

So America is exporting one of college basketball's warriors.

But it's not farewell, Scottie Reynolds. It's only arrivederci until every March highlight package from here until college basketball stops being played.

Hopefully the NBA watches too.