Villanova All-America Reynolds an NBA draft underdog

Scottie Reynolds is not going to watch tomorrow's NBA draft. He will be at Herndon (Va.) High, playing ball.

"Why put myself through watching that?" Reynolds said from Dallas on Monday. "Why not do what you love, not go out partying? I am going to do what I love and, if somebody needs to contact me, they know where to find me. I'll be in the Herndon High School basketball gym. Everybody that I've been playing with through all these years from around my way, they'll all be there just playing and having fun. We usually play for 3 to 5 hours."

If you wondered why Reynolds played the way he did at Villanova, reread the preceding paragraph. There was never any agenda. It was for the joy of the game.

And if his name never gets called tomorrow, so be it.

"He knows what's going to happen," said Jay Wright, Reynolds' coach at Villanova.

And he has known for a year.

Remember Reynolds declared for the draft after his junior year, after he made that basket that got his team to the 2009 Final Four.

"I know in his mind he kind of felt like, 'What do I have left to do?' " Wright said. "If he'd been a first-round pick or even if someone had guaranteed him an early second-round pick, he probably would have gone last year because he was close enough to graduating.

"Going through the workouts, they told us maybe [he wouldn't be] drafted, maybe late second round. We knew from experience once they get a label on you like that, it doesn't matter what you do next year."

It didn't matter that Reynolds finished his Villanova career with 2,222 points. It didn't matter that he was a first-team All-America.

It did matter that he is an undersized (6-2) shooting/point guard who might not be quick enough for the NBA.

"Some people say they might take him in the second round, but no one has committed that they will take him," Wright said. "Usually, somebody that I know will tell me, 'If he's available at this spot, we're taking him.' But no one has told me that yet."

If Reynolds is not selected, it will be the first time in memory that a draft-eligible first-team All-America player was not drafted.

"You would think that would blow the kid's mind, but he gets it because when he decided to test the waters, everyone told us if you do this, you're going to get labeled," Wright said. "Whatever they label you, that's what you're going to be no matter what you do next year. And that's exactly what happened. He's exactly where they said he was at the end of last year."

Which is in NBA no-man's land.

All of which changes nothing about who Reynolds is or what he did at Villanova. The school might never have a better representative. And that will count long after basketball is done.

"Last week, I had four workouts in 5 days," Reynolds said. "I was in New York Monday, D.C. Tuesday, Portland Thursday, San Antonio Friday."

He always knew what city he was in, but he did wonder a few times what room he was in.

"Sometimes, you'll go to the room [number] from 3 days ago," Reynolds said.

The workouts, Reynolds said, have been great.

"I haven't had a bad workout," he said. "Some have been better than others. Everything's been positive. It's so hard to tell. I could be drafted or couldn't be and it still could work out."

Reynolds is prepared for anything tomorrow.

"I can't control that," Reynolds said. "I'm content with it. When you go into the workouts, you leave everything out there so when [draft day] comes, you don't have any regrets. I definitely don't have any regrets."

He knows himself. What others think is up to them.

"There are guys that are telling me he's a great character guy," Wright said. "They've compared him to an Eddie House as a scorer and they've compared him to [Derek] Fisher in terms of toughness, intelligence, undersized. The old NBA saying is, 'It only takes one team to like him.' "

Precisely.

"He's taking this as a great challenge," Wright said. "He knows he might have to go to Europe. He knows he might have to make a team as an underdog. He's got a great frame of mind right now. It was more frustrating last spring. It was really eye-opening for both of us. He actually came back knowing that, 'It's going to be the same thing and I'm going to enjoy my senior year, going to be a leader and get my degree.' "

He did enjoy it. He was a leader. He did get his degree.

And whatever happens tomorrow night, that never changes.