Scottie Reynolds left it all on the court for Villanova

At the end, Scottie Reynolds simply had no more to give.

It's not the way he wanted to go out, one step shy of a third consecutive Sweet 16, a year removed from a Final Four. But life, and basketball seasons, don't always go the way you'd like them to. Or, in the case of this season, even thought it could, especially after a 20-1 start.

Maybe that's how some people will remember Reynolds. Too bad. They'd be missing the overall.

Three days after his Villanova career ended, he let the media get inside his head one final time. As usual, he was enlightening and humble. Not to mention frustrated. Once you reach a certain level, who is ever satisfied with anything less?

"Every year is different," the second-leading scorer in program history said yesterday, in the school's athletics and fitness facility, the Davis Center. "Some things are going to happen. You don't know [what or when], but it's going to happen. It's all how you handle those situations.

"You try your hardest to do the little things to make people know you care. I remember taking the freshmen up and watching film of Duke [in last year's Sweet 16] game and telling them, 'We weren't perfect on every play but we were all together out there.' Just trying to get that feeling through. Things like that, that nobody really ever sees.

"The hardest thing was probably just wanting to get there, wanting to do the right things all the time. And sometimes you do it and it didn't work out. You still have to keep a good attitude, because you're the leader . . . [Wanting] the feeling that we had last year, that full emotion where you don't have to say nothing, but you'd just look at each other and it's like, 'There's something there.' Wanting it so bad, not just for you but for everybody. I probably did more for this team than last year, so it hurts not to have the same kind of success as [those seniors] did. At the same time, I left it all out there. I can't feel bad for that."

The Wildcats, with six first-year players, finished 25-8 after losing to Saint Mary's in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a two-seed. Perhaps it shouldn't happen, but it does. This time, it was Villanova's turn.

Naturally, outsiders want to know what went wrong. So did the family.

"I'm not going to lie to you," said Reynolds, who shot 13-for-52 in his last four games after carrying this group most of the season. "I'm like, 'Shoot, what's going on?' You don't know when you're going on a losing streak. And once you do, you could lose it for the rest of the season. Sometimes you have to go through it. You don't always want to go through it, especially when you're a senior. Different groups have to go through it. We went through it sophomore year, and look what happened [Villanova made the Sweet 16 as a 12-seed]. It sucks, not to have another opportunity at that, being with my team. That's the way it is.

"Those last few games I was just so exhausted. No excuses, just the truth. It was hard for me just to stand up. Cold baths, massages, IVs, just trying to get to the next game.

"Sometimes [as leaders] we did a good job, sometimes we didn't. It's nobody's fault. Every year, there's probably a lot of things that go on within that's never shared. On Senior Night, and I probably shouldn't say this, I looked at 'Fish' [junior guard Corey Fisher] and told him, 'I gave you everything I had. I battled you [in practice]. You've got way more physical tools and everything than me. Now you've got to do something. Teach the next guys coming up.' He had tears in his eyes. I did, too. I knew he knew what I was talking about."

The program will go on. It always does. But he left a mark. Regardless of how it ended, that will never change.

"It's hard to tell people what it was like, practicing in Nevin [the field house] with no air-conditioning," Reynolds explained. "It's hard to tell people this place wasn't always here. Where we're standing right now. It's hard for people to understand. I used to park here, my first visit."

That was 4 years ago. A lot happened in that time. Much of it was because of him. He left a big chunk of himself behind. Other than possibly another win, what more could anyone ask?