City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
--

At any level of basketball, minutes are earned from making the most of the opportunities that are presented.

Darryl Reynolds knew that when he was inserted into the starting lineup in place of the injured Daniel Ochefu for the previous three games.

With not too much to write home about offensively in the first two games in which Reynolds started, he burst onto the scene in a big way at 11th-ranked Providence as he led the Wildcats to a 72-60 victory.

“No one on our team is surprised,” Villanova coach Jay Wright told reporters in Providence. “We tell him ‘Darryl you are improving, people just don’t see it, they are going to.’ He got his opportunity. The fact that he is ready for this shows his maturity and intelligence because he has been playing like this in practice.”

Reynolds finished with a career-high 19 points in a career-high 36 minutes along with 10 rebounds. In the previous two games, in which he started against St. Johns and Creighton, Reynolds scored four points in both games.

“It obviously feels good,” Reynolds said. “But I do miss our senior leader and when he gets back we are just going to keep it going. It obviously feels good though, but we are on to the next game.”

Ochefu has been sidelined for the previous three games while undergoing the concussion protocol.

The 6-foot-11 senior has played ahead of Reynolds for much of his career and the two have been tasked with defending each other in practice for some time now.

“Part of Daniel’s development is going against Darryl every day,” Wright said. “Daniel is a real good defensive player, Darryl might be better defensively. Daniel struggles sometimes in practice to score because he is playing against Darryl, Darryl can guard around the perimeter a little bit better.”

All-in-all it was a terrific day for a player that came into the game averaging just 2.3 ppg along with 4.4 rebounds on the season. After all, he is replacing a senior leader who puts up 9.7 ppg along with 8.3 rpg.

Reynolds, on his career, averages 1.4 ppg and has never really gotten a chance to shine. In fact, Saturday marked Reynolds third career start, all coming during this stretch in which Ochefu is hurt, and the junior from Lower Merion has certainly made the most of this opportunity.

“It is something that I love seeing personally, that is my brother, that is who I came in with,” junior Josh Hart said. “We see that on a daily basis, seeing him go against Daniel, them having battles, there are times that he comes out having a better day than Daniel, and vica versa. So we have always seen it but now for him to do it the past couple of games it is really rewarding.”

Reynolds surge has been a blessing for Wright and the Wildcats, allowing Ochefu time to heal without the team skipping a beat. ‘Nova has disposed of its three opponents during this stretch by an average score of 14.

Ochefu will eventually come back though, and ‘Nova fans can expect to see Reynolds maintain an increased role in the Wildcats gameplan. It is certainly not a situation where a guy like Ochefu will lose his starting spot to Reynolds, but the two of them could created quite the duo in the paint.

“It is going to be great, we had some tired people out there tonight,” Wright said. “If we can have fresh bodies, it is better. We have a package with Daniel and Darryl playing together, just for different reasons we have not been able to do it a lot, but this just makes it easier.”

On the game, ‘Nova was also paced by the stellar play of fellow junior, guard Josh Hart who finished with 14 points and 13 boards. Senior Ryan Arcidiacono also chimed in 16 points.

Providence was led by sophomore Ben Bentil, who has not been playing at 100 percent. He recorded 20 points for the Friars off of the bench. Megastar Kris Dunn was held to just 11 points and three assists.

Nobody had a better night that Reynolds, though.

“To see him do that is really rewarding for everybody to see,” Hart said. “Because we have seen the work that he has put in over the years and him reaping the benefits of that is something that is great to see.”