NORMAN — Austin Reaves looked uneasy as he approached the swarm of reporters and TV cameras that waited for him Thursday. Even in the friendly confines of the practice facility inside Lloyd Noble Center, a facility in which Reaves now has spent more than a year without playing a single minute of live game action, he looked anything but comfortable.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been interviewed by this many people before,” the transfer from Wichita State said.
If things go right for the lanky, 6-foot-5 guard this year, he’ll have to get used to it.
By the time OU kicks off its men’s basketball season in November, it will have been 20 months since Reaves last competed in a college basketball game. In March 2018, he was a sophomore contributor for a Wichita State team that made the NCAA Turnament. Now he’s a Sooner.
Reaves’ decision to leave coach Gregg Marshall’s Shockers came a month after that 2017-18 season ended, and in the time since he has shed little light publicly on what drove him away from Wichita and, ultimately, to Norman. But in the year-plus since he arrived at OU, in which Reaves was forced to sit out the 2018-19 season per NCAA transfer rules, the crafty guard has become ingrained in coach Lon Kruger’s program.
He has gotten used to the culture and settled into a comfortable place alongside his teammates and the coaching staff. Reaves has gained a better perspective on who he is on the court and as a teammate. He said he feels more confident than he ever did at Wichita State.
Now Reaves is ready, finally, to return to the court and make an impact for the Sooners.
