Scottie Reynolds

Scottie Reynolds needed just one extraordinary freshman season to be thrust into the national spotlight as the face of the Villanova basketball program. Now Reynolds has been asked to accept extra responsibilities in addition to being his team's top scorer, best perimeter shooter, and the player on whom the Wildcats can rely to make the big shots. He has been named a co-captain, a role Reynolds does not take lightly and welcomes eagerly. "It means a lot," the sophomore guard said.

Scottie Reynolds spent roughly 2 months living with agent Arn Tellem and Tellem's family, preparing for the NBA draft and summer league competition. "He's like my fourth son," Tellem said last night. "He's become part of our family. " And, as in any family, it's time for the person even temporarily in charge to help that "son" find a job. Tellem confirmed that he's getting closer to that goal after Reynolds - fighting back from a slight Achilles' tendon problem - played three games for the Phoenix Suns in the Las Vegas Summer League.

No team called Scottie Reynolds' name in the NBA draft in June. The Phoenix Suns eventually called the Villanova guard's name for a summer-league spot and an invitation to training camp. But Prima Veroli, a second-division team in Italy, trumped that, signing him to a 1-year contract that includes some financial guarantees. "The financial offer was something that blew us out of the water," said Lee Melchionni, one of Reynolds' agents. Reynolds, the fourth first-team All-America in Villanova history and the Wildcats' second-leading career scorer with 2,222 points, had mulled the Suns' offer, but, Melchionni said, "The financial security that Prima Veroli's offer provides made this a sound decision for Scottie.

The sweat mixed with the blood from the cut over Scottie Reynolds' right eye, and the combination ran down his face in a rivulet that forced him to the bench at the worst possible time for Villanova yesterday. And Georgetown's surge while the Wildcats' medical staff worked on Reynolds' bandage resulted in tears being shed by Villanova fans lamenting the likely end of their team's NCAA dreams. The Wildcats were outscored by 14-6 in the 5 1/2 minutes their leading scorer and primary ballhandler sat on the bench in the second half, and the Hoyas rolled to an 82-63 victory in the Big East tournament quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden.

Scottie Reynolds watched Oklahoma's basketball team play its Senior Night game on television and breathed a sigh of relief. That was the sound most Villanova fans made when they heard last summer that the point guard was headed for the Main Line instead of the Great Plains. Coming out of Herndon, Va., he was a hot recruit who opted out of his commitment to Oklahoma when coach Kelvin Sampson left for Indiana. The sigh came because that choice did not start a negative chain reaction.

The combination of factors that Villanova needed to have a chance at knocking off streaking Connecticut were not panning out yesterday at the Wachovia Center. The Wildcats' biggest player, 6-foot-10, 275-pound Casiem Drummond, was watching from the bench in street clothes. The Huskies were battering them on the backboards. The 'Cats weren't getting fouled, going to the line just once in the first 19 minutes, 38 seconds of the second half. But Villanova came up with a mix of sparkling offensive play from Scottie Reynolds, their most error-free Big East game of the season, and tight defense down the stretch to upset the 13th-ranked Huskies, 67-65, and snap the visitors' 10-game win streak.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The words sound astounding, coming from the mouth of Scottie Reynolds: "I've scored enough points. . . . In fact, I'm sick of scoring. " This from a man who scored 2,214 collegiate points, second all-time at Villanova? Who perpetrated the greatest mad-dash scoring play in school history, elevating 'Nova to the 2009 Final Four? Reynolds hasn't lost his mind, or his edge. He just recognizes that 2,214 points didn't get him to the NBA and that his resumé now includes being the only first-team Associated Press all-American since the NBA-ABA merger not to be drafted by the NBA. After the briefest of stays last fall playing in Italy, Reynolds is a rookie point guard for the Springfield Armor in the NBA Development League, and he's been told what part of his game needs developing.

Scottie Reynolds wore a sleeve on his right knee and tape on two fingers of his left hand, and he limped after Villanova completed practice yesterday at the Wachovia Center. The injuries are in large part responsible for the Wildcats' star sophomore guard's slow start in Big East Conference play - 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting in two games - but Reynolds won't blame them. "Everybody's got their bumps and bruises," he said. "You can't make any excuses about your performance out there.

Villanova welcomed back former coach Rollie Massimino for an evening of reminiscing and exhibition basketball, but the real news for the Wildcats last night came off the court. Villanova coach Jay Wright said senior forward Shane Clark underwent arthroscopic surgery yesterday to clean out loose particles in his right knee at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He will be out for four to six weeks. Clark, who averaged 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, had been practicing but felt it best "to have a minor procedure to ensure that this problem doesn't persist during the season," Wright said.

Yesterday, Villanova officially announced the addition of Scottie Reynolds - the Wildcats' biggest recruit of its incoming class for basketball. Villanova had received an oral commitment from Reynolds in May. Reynolds, a McDonald's all-American, was committed to attend Oklahoma this season, but he was released from that letter of intent when coach Kelvin Sampson left the school to take the Indiana job. The 6-foot-1 guard from Herndon, Va., will enroll at Villanova and will be eligible to play in the fall.

As anticipated by most, including Villanova coach Jay Wright, Wildcats junior lead guard Maalik Wayns is indeed going to put his name into the pool of available candidates for the NBA draft. "I want to test the waters at this point to see where I stand," the 6-foot-2 Roman Catholic High product said in a statement released Wednesday by the university. "I think this is a smart decision for Maalik at this stage of his career," Wright said. "I look forward to working with him as we go through this process.

MOST FOLKS felt this was probably going to be a bumpy transition. We're about to get a much better idea of precisely how turbulent the ride could be. Villanova's basketball team, with no seniors and five first-year players, begins its Big East season tonight at West Virginia (9-3). The Wildcats, who were picked to finish eighth, are 7-5 after opening 4-0. The Mountaineers were voted seventh. The Wildcats are 3 years removed from a Final Four. The Mountaineers, who will soon be moving to the Big 12, got there in 2010.

Villanova's Big Five schedule appears to be the perfect training ground for Maalik Wayns to establish himself as the team leader, something he showed Tuesday night at crunch time with La Salle ready to spring a stunning upset. Wayns sank only 5 of 16 attempts from the field, but three of the five came at the end of regulation and in overtime as he sparked the Wildcats to a 76-69 victory over the Explorers at the Pavilion. Villanova coach Jay Wright is expecting good performances from Wayns.

Villanova's Big Five schedule appears to be the perfect training ground for Maalik Wayns to establish himself as the team leader, something he showed Tuesday night at crunch time with La Salle ready to spring a stunning upset. Wayns sank only 5 of 16 attempts from the field, but three of the five came at the end of regulation and in overtime as he sparked the Wildcats to a 76-69 victory over the Explorers at the Pavilion. Villanova coach Jay Wright is expecting good performances from Wayns.

SO, WHERE TO NOW? Two years ago, the only two questions Villanova fans were asking were when are the Wildcats getting back to another Final Four and when are they going to actually win the national title? And why not? They'd just reached the Final Four for the first time in a quarter-century, after going to a Sweet 16 the previous March, a Final Eight in 2006 and the Sweet 16 in '05. Well, these days they mostly want to know how come Jay Wright forgot how to do his job?

The Big East conference schedule is a journey over treacherous winter roads, a long trip in which a team can be cruising along one moment and then an unseen patch of black ice sends it spinning into the guardrail. It's nothing new, and no team reaches the end of the season without a flat tire or a cracked windshield along the way. Villanova suffered a second straight fender bender on Saturday, losing, 69-66, to Georgetown in a game that honestly shouldn't have been that close. "We've fallen into some bad habits," coach Jay Wright said.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The words sound astounding, coming from the mouth of Scottie Reynolds: "I've scored enough points. . . . In fact, I'm sick of scoring. " This from a man who scored 2,214 collegiate points, second all-time at Villanova? Who perpetrated the greatest mad-dash scoring play in school history, elevating 'Nova to the 2009 Final Four? Reynolds hasn't lost his mind, or his edge. He just recognizes that 2,214 points didn't get him to the NBA and that his resumé now includes being the only first-team Associated Press all-American since the NBA-ABA merger not to be drafted by the NBA. After the briefest of stays last fall playing in Italy, Reynolds is a rookie point guard for the Springfield Armor in the NBA Development League, and he's been told what part of his game needs developing.

STORRS, Conn. - Before yesterday's Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee, seventh-ranked Villanova had played four road games: at Penn, La Salle, Monmouth and South Florida. This time, the obstacle happened to be a fellow Top 10 Big East rival. It won't be the last. Yet for most of the way at Gampel Pavilion, that didn't make much of a difference. The Wildcats, winners of 11 in a row, led No. 8 Connecticut by seven points with 9 minutes to go. In the end, though, it came down to the Huskies' player-of-the-year candidate unfurling one more big-time highlight than his former junior-high teammate.

WHEN IT ALL ended so ugly and suddenly for Villanova in Providence last March, Jay Wright looked back on December and January like a kid looks at an empty, candy-stained pillowcase a few days after Halloween. What had once been so sweet, an attack on the senses really, ended as one big bellyache at the end. The Wildcats were 15-1 to start last season, too, their national ranking in single-digits. We're not that good, Wright told anyone who would listen, even as the record ballooned to 20-1, even as the ranking rose to No. 2. No one listened.

SCOTTIE Reynolds doesn't call the Main Line home anymore. So, for the first time in five seasons, the Wildcats will have to find their way without the guy who has been the face of the program. "He was such a dynamic personality, even more so than Randy [Foye] or Allan [Ray]," said coach Jay Wright. "He just had that kind of charisma. When we would go on the road, all the fans would be yelling at Scottie. And everyone wanted to see Scottie. And they kind of left everybody else alone.