It took just one short phone call to rain on Scottie Reynolds’ all-star parade and turn him as glum as the cloudy weather outside Cox Arena on Tuesday.
Following a morning workout with his East squad teammates, the McDonald’s High School All-American from Herndon, Va., checked his cell phone and found a message from Oklahoma University coach Kelvin Sampson.
Reynolds’ return call resulted in the same news that certainly shocked college basketball fans only hours earlier, when reports surfaced that Sampson had decided to jump ship to Indiana.
“I called him back, I said, ‘What’s up, coach?’ and that’s all I said to him. I just let him talk,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t really say anything. I was just kind of upset about it.”
While the 6-foot-1 shooting guard said he heard rumors that other programs had interest in Sampson, he figured a recruiting class that some analysts ranked among the top five in the nation certainly would be enough to keep Sampson in Norman for a 13th season.
And even if the Oklahoma coach were set to depart, no one figured it would be for the Hoosiers, who apparently created a convincing smoke screen about wanting to bring someone with Indiana ties back to the program.
“I think it caught everybody by surprise. It happened so quickly. But when you have a good coach, people want to come after him,” Reynolds said. “Like I told somebody else : for me, it’s God, family and basketball, and he made a decision for his family. You can’t be mad at him.”
Reynolds spurned offers from Michigan and North Carolina State last fall to sign with the Sooners.
He averaged 27.2 ppg as a senior at Herndon High, closing out a prep career that saw him top the 2,000-point barrier.
Now, his hopes for a bright future in Norman may change course in favor of no future at all.
“It’s tough. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m going to go through the process and see what happens,” said Reynolds, who, should he decide he wants to back out on the Sooners, would need to be released from his letter of intent by Oklahoma’s new coach or lose at least one year of eligibility following his transfer.
“I don’t know if I’ll be in the Big 12 or not. We’ll see what coach they get, I’ll talk with him, and we’ll go from there.”