Reynolds continues excellence with SRU
It’s another Reynolds wrap.
No, the Slippery Rock University men’s basketball team did not win the PSAC championship.
No, The Rock is not advancing to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
But, yes, the program continues to win consistently and is doing so under the guidance of head coach Kevin Reynolds.
In six short years, Reynolds has taken the SRU basketball program from a team that compiled a 99-267 won-loss record from 1994 through 2008 to one that considers this year’s 20-10 mark a disappointment.
The players expected better. So did the coaches. Four PSAC West losses by four points or fewer — all coming in the span of three weeks late in the season — cost the team a shot at winning the regular season division title.
A 73-69 double overtime loss at Gannon in the PSAC tournament cost the team a shot at returning to the conference championship game.
Expectations change with success.
Reynolds has certainly changed the expectations for this program.
This year marked The Rock’s fourth 20-win season under Reynolds. The program produced just three 20-win men’s basketball campaigns before Reynolds’ arrival, the last coming in 1990-91.
SRU has compiled a winning record in all six of Reynolds’ years at the helm. Slippery Rock had not had six straight winning seasons in men’s basketball since 1928.
Next year, Reynolds will likely surpass Bob Barlett and move into third place on The Rock basketball all-time victory list. His 117 wins trail Barlett by nine.
Barlett had a solid coaching career at SRU in his own right, but Reynolds could eclipse his win total in two fewer seasons.
Next rung on the ladder after that is Hank Baierl’s 144 wins — and he took 12 years to accumulate those.
Reynolds has been successful through his ability to adapt a style of play to the talents of his roster and his contacts to bring in transfers. This year’s team had no freshmen.
At the same time, it had 10 players average more than 10 minutes per game.
Four players who averaged more than 22 minutes per game — guards Josh Martin and Sa’Quan Davis, forwards Tabari Perry and Maurice Lewis-Briggs — are graduating. They are taking 43 points per game with them.
That still leaves 12 players coming back, six of whom averaged 10 or more minutes per game, none of whom averaged as many as eight points per game.
On the surface, that sounds like a challenge.
Rest assured, Reynolds is already working on next year.
His teams are always among the PSAC’s — and the nation’s — leaders in rebound differential. Next year’s roster will have new leaders and possibly an entirely different skill set.
This guy will figure it out.
Kevin Reynolds may move onward, upward and out of town someday.
In the meantime, keep enjoying the ride.
John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle
