SLIPPERY ROCK — Glenn Reepmeyer grimaced as a Slippery Rock University athletic trainer peeled away temporary sutures from a nasty cut under his right eye.

It's not what the senior SRU post player expected to be doing on a Wednesday night.

But here he was after his Rock basketball team had toppled LockHaven in the first conference game of the season.

Here he was, with a spinning head, a cut under his eye and satisfaction on his mind.

"I don't mind, you know," he says. "I've played enough sports in my life to know this kind of thing happens."

It was a sport he could no longer play at The Rock that put him back on the basketball court this winter.

Reepmeyer was a standout men's water polo player at the school.

The water polo team was 24-7 in 2005, losing to Brown 9-8 in overtime in the finals of the Eastern Championships.

Reepmeyer, a goalkeeper, stopped 431 shots.

But the water polo program was a victim of budget cuts last year.

It was a crushing blow for Reepmeyer, so he pondered his future.

During his freshman and sophomore years at The Rock, he played both water polo and basketball after being a star in both sports at Parkway West HighSchool, near St. Louis.

But last season, he devoted himself to water polo and left basketball to the intramural and playground courts.

When the water polo program was slashed, basketball became an option again.

"We heard the rumors and knew we were probably going to get cut," Reepmeyer said. "I thought a lot about (playing basketball again). The coaches called me this summer when I was back inSt. Louis."

It didn't take long for Reepmeyer to decide to take up the game again.

"I called coach (Jamal) Palmer and told him I want to play," he said.

Reepmeyer hasn't missed a beat.

He is second on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game and first in rebounding average with 8.6 boards.

Despite suffering the cut below his eye, he finished Wednesday with his fifth double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He blocked six shots and had three assists.

At the end of his sophomore season — his last in a Rock uniform — he averaged 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest.

"I still don't think I'm up to par," Reepmeyer said. "That year off kind of hurt me in a way. It's not like I didn't touch a basketball, but I didn't play every day, either."