JONESBORO - John Brady insists there will be a night this season when Brandon Reed looks like the old Brandon Reed again.
The Arkansas State coach knows the player Reed was four years ago is still inside his No. 3 jersey somewhere, and some night he’ll slash through the lane for easy layups or drain left-handed three-pointers like he did while earning top freshman honors in the Sun Belt Conference.
“I think something is going to happen positive for him,” Brady said.
Time is running out on for the senior guard in his second stint with the Red Wolves.
ASU (14-9, 7-5) hosts Texas-Arlington (11-13, 6-6) at 7:05 tonight at the Convocation Center. With seven games remaining, the Red Wolves have a chance to finish as high as second place in the league standings. Reed, who made the rare decision to return to ASU this season after spending the past three seasons at Georgia Tech, is pleased with the team’s standing.
He would just like to play a bigger part.
Heading into tonight, Reed is averaging 9.5 points and 25.9 minutes per game,statistics well short of what he displayed during his freshman season in 2009-2010. He averaged 15.1 points that season - 16.8 against conference teams - while setting a freshman scoring record for ASU with 469 points.
He started 30 games that year, scored 34 points against Denver and six times scored 20 points or more. He then left for Georgia Tech, citing at the time a desire to be closer to his family in Powder Springs, Ga. After two largely uneventful seasons there - Reed averaged 6.4 points in two seasons - he utilized the NCAA’s graduate transfer rule to return to Jonesboro and “undo a wrong,” admitting now that his leaving in the first place was a mistake.
But his final season has turned down a path he didn’t envision, one that will likely see him coming off the bench tonight for the seventh consecutive game and taking shots when they come.
“I still got that aggressive edge to me,” Reed said. “I still have that. I just have to show it consistently. That’s really what I’m focused on now, really just trying to show people that I still have it.”
On some nights this season, Reed has.
He had 21 points in a November game at Colorado and 21 again in December at Marshall. He scored 23 points in a home loss to Troy in January, which came at the end of a five-game stretch during which he averaged 17 per game and upped his season scoring average to 11.4.
He’s managed only 12 or more twice since as his scoring average and his minutes have declined. Brady said Reed’s offensive inconsistencies made it easier to bring him off the bench considering his defensive liabilities, but the coach still considers him a valuable member of the team and doesn’t count out Reed moving back into the starting lineup at some point.
“It’s a business that’s based on performance, and if you look at the numbers with the other players, they’ve got better numbers,” Brady said. “I’m trying to make decisions based on what I think is the best to win the game.”
Reed started coming off the bench in a Jan. 25 victory over UALR, scoring four points in 19 minutes.Five nights later, he played in 15 minutes and was held scoreless in a loss at Louisiana-Monroe, then didn’t take a shot in seven minutes at Troy on Feb. 1.
A day after that game, Reed knocked on Brady’s office door for a chat.
“I just wanted to know what was going on,” Reed said. “I came back here to play, but you’ve got to roll with the punches. I know Coach knows what’s best for the team.”
What the meeting did more than anything was solidify Reed’s place as a role player, something he never thought he’d become. Brady is quick to point out that Reed isn’t a total castaway. His 25.9 minutes per game are fourth most on the team.
“It hasn’t worked quite as well, but it is working,” Brady said. “Is he our leading scorer and best player? No. Can he find a place on this team to be successful? Yes.”
Reed, who admits he still has a scorer’s mentality, still feels like he has to prove to others what he knows he still has. He has seven games left to do it.
“Hopefully, it’ll be [tonight], ” Reed said. “I don’t want to feel like I came back here for no reason.”
Today’s game ASU MEN VS. TEXAS-ARLINGTON WHEN 7:05 p.m.
WHERE Convocation Center, Jonesboro RECORDS Arkansas State 14-9, 7-5 Sun Belt; Texas-Arlington 11-13, 6-6 SERIES Arkansas State leads 37-13 RADIO KFIN-FM, 107.9, in Jonesboro INTERNET astateredwolves.com TICKETS $6 children and seniors; $8 upper level, wings; $10 upper level, sides; $12 upper level, center; $25 lower level.
Sports, Pages 17 on 02/20/2014