Wichita State’s Austin Reaves might flunk the eye test; other grades encouraging

They played one-on-one games to 12 points in the gym at Cedar Ridge High, best 2 out of 3. Five dribbles before a shot is allowed in the first game, then three dribbles, then one.

Repeat for two or three hours. Hard feelings guaranteed to win between the two brothers.

“It would end up me getting really mad and me starting a fight,” Wichita State guard Austin Reaves said. “What I liked to do was, when he went up for a shot, I’d hit him in the face and say it was on accident, but it wasn’t.”

That is how Reaves’ basketball education began. Older brother Spencer forced him to the gym in Newark, Ark. Austin gradually grew from a reluctant participant to an equally-devoted worker.

“He was the biggest gym rat I’ve ever met,” Austin Reaves said. “I’d be almost asleep and he’d wake me up and drag me with him. We’d go to the gym every day, play one-on-one and he’d beat the crap out of me every day.”

The Shockers (3-0) play Maryland-Eastern Shore (0-3) at 2 p.m. Sunday at Koch Arena in a final warmup before the Battle 4 Atlantis and another chance for Austin Reaves to entice fans with his mature vision for passing, his underdog physique and small-town roots that remind people of former Shocker Ron Baker.

Reaves’ story is in its infancy; judging from the gasps and cheers from fans, they can’t wait for every development.

Neither can Spencer Reaves, who started preparing his younger brother for the physical nature of the games years ago.

“He was the little guy everybody thought they could pick on,” Spencer Reaves said. “I knew how it was going to be for him. We tried to implement that in practice, get him used to it.”

Every second on a basketball court is a physical trial and nobody knows that more than Austin Reaves.

All his life, he walked on a court as the player who looks young and vulnerable. Opponents will push him, see if his slim frame can handle a bump or a hold, try to break his confidence, show that the kid who scored 73 points in a high school game that he isn’t playing in tiny gyms against future accountants, doctors and farmers.

It happened in the fall at WSU when he joined practices, just as it did in previous years in high school and summer tournaments.

“They test you and try to see what you’re about,” WSU junior Shaq Morris said. “If you’re skinny and small, they try to eat you up. But he knows how to handle it. He’s, apparently, used to being underrated.”

Reaves, recovering from shoulder surgery in March, didn’t join WSU’s pickup games and practices until late summer. He said Shocker junior Zach Brown, perhaps the team’s top defender, guarded him in the first pickup game.

“He was getting up in me, and you know there’s not many fouls called,” Reaves said.

Reaves is 6-foot-5, 179 pounds and up 17 pounds from June. To call that added bulk is generous. While he’s working hard in the weight room, the added pounds merely moved him to a bigger form of skinny.

“You’re always going to get the eye test,” he said. “I’ve never passed the eye test.”

His teammates now know the eye test is unreliable when it comes to judging Reaves’ talent, confidence and flair.

“He definitely has a bit of dog in his game, that lets you know he is trying to put the ball in the basket, either passing it or feeding you a bucket in your face,” Morris said. “Some stuff you wouldn’t see a freshman normally do in the aspect of going at you, instead of being timid.”

The shoulder rehab kept him from playing in the early August exhibition games in Canada. Even in limited viewing, his skills showed. Players love playing with him because of his passing. Coaches noticed how he paid attention, even when injured, and picked up the system.

“I joked about it with him, I told him coming in — ‘Dude, you’re a white boy from Arkansas that’s skinnier than ever,’ ” WSU senior J.R. Simon said. “He’s shown he’s got a lot of game, he’s even got some city to his game.”

There seems to be little question about that. WSU coach Gregg Marshall worries about his shoulders — both victims of labrum surgery — and little else. In three games, Reaves is 8 of 12 from the field, 3 of 6 from three-point range to average 6.7 points. He has six assists, one turnover, a crowd-pleasing steal and dunk, and several nifty pass fakes.

Growing up in a basketball family sharpened his basketball smarts.

Reaves got his passing ability from his father and his scoring from his mother. Brian Reaves, his father, played point guard at Arkansas State and led the team in assists three times and foul shooting twice. Nicole Wilkett, his mother, averaged 18.9 points in two seasons at Arkansas State. When Austin stalled and dribbled too much in one-on-one games, Spencer instituted the limited-dribble rules to force the action and teach his younger brother how to score off the bounce.

“Basketball’s really important to him,” Marshall said. “He’s constantly coming over to me — ‘What defense do you want?’ Even before I can think about it — we’re shooting two free throws. He wants to know so he can spread the word. That’s good stuff.”

Basketball wasn’t always that important to Reaves. It took prodding from Spencer to get him in the gym instead of tubing at Greers Ferry Lake or duck hunting. Spencer, who is a junior guard at NCAA Division II Central Missouri, grew up the driven one.

Austin eventually adopted his brother’s determination, motivated by the down time after his first shoulder surgery.

Three years later, he finished a senior season averaging 32.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.1 assists in leading his team to the Arkansas Class 3A title. He scored 56 or more four times, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with a high of 73 against Forrest City in a 117-115 triple-overtime win in December. Cedar Ridge also won state titles in 2013 and 2014 with Spencer and Austin playing together.

Arkansas assistant coach Melvin Watkins called in March, Reaves said, with an offer for a walk-on spot. Reaves, who committed to WSU in January, declined. He is a Natural State contrarian who rebelled against the Razorback football mania and ignored the basketball — someone who enjoys yelling “Roll Tide” in a pack of Hog fans.

Arkansas State offered him a scholarship. So did Arkansas-Little Rock. But neither recruitment proceeded to Reaves’ satisfaction and both schools changed coaches.

“We had a four-day tournament at (Arkansas State) and I averaged 48 … and they still didn’t offer,” he said. “It took two or three months after that to offer.”

While other schools delayed or ignored, the Shockers moved. Marshall went to Cedar Ridge to watch a game in early January. Reaves visited WSU’s game against Indiana State in January and committed a few days later.

All those fights in the Cedar Ridge gym paid off. Big brother sent him to college basketball prepared to play.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s Austin Reaves might flunk the eye test; other grades encouraging."