AJ Reeves' Perseverance was Rewarded on Senior Night

Here’s a memo to any coaching staff out there preparing for Providence this postseason: Don’t let AJ Reeves get out of the gate early.

Truth be told, Creighton probably didn’t have much of a shot in this one from the jump. This Providence team, 23-3 on the season coming into Saturday, had been through too much both collectively and individually to lose to the Jays with the Big East regular season title within their grasp.

Greg McDermott’s club ran full steam into a buzzsaw on Saturday at the Dunkin Donuts Center — a night that capped one of the wildest years this old building has seen with a 72-51 Friar victory.

Creighton made the mistake of letting Reeves loose in the first half — and they paid for it.

Three minutes into the game, the Roxbury, MA native knocked down his first 3-pointer on the night to give Providence an early 5-2 lead. PC never trailed from that point forward — in fact, Creighton never even tied it up again.

A minute and a half later, Reeves hit his second three, and everyone who has watched the Friars since Reeves’ career started here in 2018 knew that the Jays were in for it.

By the end of the first half Reeves had connected on four shots from beyond the arc, and PC led, 35-26.

The second half was more of the same. Reeves hit two more threes in the first six minutes of the second to push PC comfortably ahead, 54-35, with 14:14 left on the clock. He sat for about eight minutes as the Friars stayed in control, only to come back in with about four minutes to play. That’s when he subsequently buried his seventh shot from long range on the night.

Those seven makes from 3-point range tied Reeves’ career high, which just so happened to come in the first game he ever played at the Dunkin Donuts Center as a freshman— a 29-point explosion that sent the already sky-high expectations for him through the leaky roof of the Dunkin Donuts Center.

“Going out like I came in? You can’t write a better story than that,” Reeves said on Saturday.

Reeves also became just the third player in Providence history to connect on seven (or more) threes in a game on two occasions.

BIG EAST MBB @BIGEASTMBB

analytics like threes, right? @ajreeves11 has six of em. It's a party in Friartown.

It’s fitting that it ended this way for Reeves and the Friars on Saturday night. Ed Cooley’s bunch might be the most disrespected 24-3 team in Big East history, and Reeves spent much of his PC career being questioned by more than just small pockets of the fanbase. And let there be no doubt, he heard it all.

Reeves deserved Saturday night, both as a member of this seemingly perfect fit of a team, and individually for all he went through over the past four years.

There was the stress fracture in his foot nine games into his freshman season that caused him to miss weeks. Later in his career he also had a lengthy absence due to a concussion, there were ankle and foot injuries, the broken fingers that cost him all of this January, and, of course, the pandemic that cut Reeves’ sophomore year short as the Friars were surging into postseason play.

Lucky? Hardly.

It would have been easy for Reeves to up and leave at some point in his college career, especially in an era in which over 1,700 players are now transferring on an annual basis.

“AJ’s personality — you just don’t get that in today’s kid,” Cooley said following Saturday night’s win. “That want to be there, that want to stay there and persevere. It’s a life lesson. When you go through a tough time, and you can withstand it, something great is at the end.”

Yes, Reeves stuck it out, and his reward has been this amazing senior season. Even this year wasn’t without its challenges for him. Reeves missed virtually all of January and struggled through half of February with fractured fingers on his left hand upon returning.

But the Villanova game in mid-February proved to be a turning point. He had 16 points in 20 minutes in that game, and has since followed it up by keeping the Friars alive with two late 3-pointers in a comeback at Butler, burying five threes before fouling out of a triple overtime win over Xavier earlier this week, and closing the home portion of the schedule with 23 points on seven made threes.

Reeves will forever be a part of the first Providence team to win a Big East regular season championship — a fitting prize for his patience and perseverance.

“They were the ones that hung in there and dealt with the ups and downs,” Cooley said of Reeves and Nate Watson on Saturday night.

“This is why I came to Providence. I knew that we could be special,” Reeves said.

“My senior year in high school, watching them in the Big East Championship in Madison Square Garden, I’m like, ‘Wow, this is something I could be a part of?’ To finally fulfill that is…” Reeves paused. “There’s no words.”