...for those of you that remember, landed JW, Daryl Reynolds. There were four options JW was looking at during the Spring recruiting season: Tyler Roberson, Syracuse; Gavin Schilling, Illinois; Austin Colbert, Illinois; and of course, Daryl Reynolds.
Roberson was thought to be JW's preference, but he eventually chose Syracuse, where he has played three seasons. Roberson hasn't quite lived up to the hype of his recruiting and has been a bit of a thorn in Boehiem's side, so much so that he publicly criticized his game to the media. He did become a rebounding machine and helped surprisingly lead Syracuse to the 2016 Final 4. Roberson returns and is probably the best of the four players.
Gavin Schilling chose Michigan State and through is junior year he has not been anything more than a midlevel bench player averaging around 4 PPG and 3 RPG in 12.5 minutes of play.
Austin Colbert chose Illinois and transferred to Old Dominion University after two years of minimal playing time. His sophomore statistics were 1.5 PPG and 1.5 RPG. Colbert becomes eligible to play this season at ODU.
Finally, VU signed Daryl Reynolds, a local player out of Lower Merion HS, who did a post grad year. Reynolds averaged 3.5 PPG and 4.5 RPG for VU last year averaging 17.5 MINS/G. In his one start last year against Providence, DR put up about 20 points and 10 rebounds. He also shot approximately 64% FGs for the season.
In a final analysis, once Roberson was committed to Syracuse, it appears as though JW got the best of the remaining players. Reynolds has improved every year since arriving on campus and, undoubtedly, will be the starting center when Nova takes the court in November.
I stated that JW had settled for Reynolds and was having difficulty recruiting big men, after losing out on Schilling and Colbert. I thought Colbert could be a pretty good player, but we will have to see what he does at ODU to determine whether I was accurate in my assessment. Reynolds become a very nice player at Nova and solid big off the bench last season. Much of his success has come with building up his body and that he plays within his skill set as well as any recent player that I can remember. The VU coaching and training staffs need to be commended in the progression of DR and his game. He is a solid player for Nova and has demonstrated that he can be counted on to play a large block of minutes. As a starter, his confidence will grow and I have no doubt he will be an effective player in the post for Nova in 2016-2017.
I noticed last season that DR could make the 12'-15' foul line jumper that JW likes his big guys to take. With an entire offseason to work on his short jumper, I expect that his game will expand quite a bit. DR will play around 20 minutes per game this year and I would bet that his offensive stats will only be behind Roberson in the crowd of 2013 PF recruiting targets.
