SLIPPERY ROCK — When Kevin Reynolds arrived on the Slippery Rock University campus five years ago, he set immediate goals as its new men’s basketball coach.

Win a conference championship. Reach the NCAA Division II tournament.

Seriously?

He was inheriting a program that averaged 5.7 wins over the previous 20 seasons.

“It did sound crazy,” Reynolds admitted. “But when you’re taking on a rebuilding project, you have to set lofty goals.

“You have to let people know you’re serious.”

Reynolds has been serious about plenty since coming to SRU. He’s serious about winning, serious about his players graduating, serious about helping staff members along in their careers.

Consider the following:

Reynolds is 97-50 in five seasons at The Rock, including three 20-win seasons, two NCAA Tournament appearances and the program’s first NCAA tourney win since 1978. SRU had three 20-win seasons in its history before Reynolds’ arrival.

SRU won 93 games total in the 13 years before Reynolds came on board.

All but two of SRU’s basketball seniors from 2009-12 have graduated from the university.

Two former Rock players — Kyle Camper and Denell Stephens — went on to play pro basketball overseas. Former player Bryen Spriggs is an assistant coach at Marshalltown Community College in Iowa, which finished 22-9 this season.

Eric Murphy, a graduate assistant coach under Reynolds, is now an assistant coach at Wabash Valley (Ill.) Community College. Former Rock assistant coach Jareem Dowling is an assistant at Southern Mississippi University. Former SRU student assistant Mike Gibbons is a graduate assistant on that staff.

“That’s the side of Kevin people most people don’t know about,” SRU athletic director Paul Lueken said. “He doesn’t bring junior college transfers in, use up their eligibility and forget about them.

“He cares about the players he coaches and the people he coaches with very deeply.”

Murphy said Reynolds prepares his assistants to move on.

“He tells us he’s going to prepare us as coaches and that’s what he does,” Murphy said. “While at Slippery Rock, I got to do scouting reports, coach the team, work a practice ... experience every element of coaching.”

Reynolds also cares enough to take the time to make sure his players are in class when they’re supposed to be.

“Every hour, one of us — myself, an assistant coach, a student manager — is checking in on each player’s class site to make sure he’s there, properly dressed, with the right books. ... We act like a Division I program that way,” Reynolds said.

“That’s why I help my people advance in their career ambitions as much as I can. It’s the least I can do for them, given what I demand of them.”

What Reynolds demands is total commitment.

“The man is all about basketball, 24-7,” Lueken said. “He’s always walking around with a phone in his ear, checking on this or that.”

“I guarantee you no coach in Division II works harder than Coach Reynolds,” Dowling said. “He knows all the X’s and O’s. But he’s not just a gym rat. He’s a tape rat.

“He’ll spend two hours a day on a treadmill, staring at a 70-inch screen watching film while he’s doing it.”

While Dowling hasn’t been with the SRU program for a couple of years, he has never totally left it.

“Kevin will call me at 2, 3 or 4 a.m., saying he has an idea he wants to bounce off me,” Dowling said. “I’ll roll over in bed, see his name on caller I.D. and pick it up.

“This happens a few times a week. I love the man’s energy.”

Murphy was also touched by such enthusiasm.

“Tireless, just tireless,” Murphy said of Reynolds. “Myself and the rest of the staff goes home at night, he’s still there watching film. He’d work until 3 a.m. and be back in at 8 a.m. to start all over again.”

Reynolds says he and his staff have to work “28 hours a day.” Assistant coach Ian Grady jokes about working 12 hours a day.

“That’s like a half-day in Coach Reynolds’ mind,” Grady said. “But I don’t mind it. The work, the dedication, that’s what it takes to be successful. That’s what I signed up for.”

Reynolds points out “obstacles and hurdles” SRU faces in the recruiting game that requires the non-stop effort.

“Teams may outspend us, outplay us ... nobody is going to outwork us,” the coach said. “Each year, we’re going to be the hardest working team in the country. That’s how we keep up.”

According to Reynolds’ statistics, only Lock Haven had less men’s basketball scholarship money ($14,000) than SRU’s $91,607 among PSAC West teams in 2011-12. Lock Haven will play in the PSAC East next season.

Yet only Indiana (Pa.), with 130 wins, has more victories among Western Division teams than The Rock’s 97 during the past five years. IUP’s scholarship dollars totaled $175,304 in 2011-12.

SRU has six more wins than Gannon and nine more than Mercyhurst from 2008-13. Both of those schools’ scholarship budgets exceed $330,000.

“We liked the plan Kevin had laid out when we interviewed him for the job,” Lueken said. “With our budget, it’s tough for us to bring in freshmen, redshirt them a year, then develop them. The junior college transfer route has worked for us.”

Reynolds agreed.

“The traditional route hadn’t worked here in 100 years. We had to try something different,” he said.

Reynolds brought in transfers immediately upon taking the SRU job. He produced the nation’s assist leader in Camper and his first Rock team finished 21-8.

That team did not received an NCAA Tournament bid.

“That grates on me to this day,” Reynolds said. “Because that team deserved to go. Slippery Rock received no respect in terms of basketball. That still hurts, still bothers me.”

League champion IUP had five Division I transfers in its lineup this season. PSAC East foe West Chester had six D-I transfers.

Other departments on campus — financial aid, student accounts, registration and admissions — are lauded by Reynolds.

“Those departments here are as good as any Division I school,” he said. “They’ve really helped us.

“But the players we want to get, it’s harder to get. You win games with good players and scholarships get you good players.”

Thus, Reynolds is now working on ways to increase his program’s scholarship dollars.

A former Division I assistant coach at Morehead State, Reynolds is unsure where his coaching career will eventually lead him.

“I take that stuff day to day,” he said. “Who knows?”

“The possibility of moving on exists for all of our coaches,” Lueken said. “As much as I’d hate to lose him, I support Kevin in whatever his career endeavors are.

“His formula for success is certainly working here.”