COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S FINAL FOUR : Reeves Has a Shattering Experience

Leaving here with one backboard and his emotions shattered, Bryant (Big Country) Reeves sat on his loser’s stool Saturday and began the difficult transition into Big City Reeves.

He did what he could: 25 points, nine rebounds, 39-plus minutes. But the UCLA Bruins, gnats at his knees, ended Oklahoma State’s hayride, 74-61, at the Kingdome.

In the blink of an eye--”Was that Tyus Edney?”--Big Country’s wild rapids ride was over. The Cowboys’ hulking center, 7-feet and 292 pounds, could only pack up his knapsack and move on.

It should be some trip. From Gans, Okla., population 218, to the NBA. From a three-building town with a volunteer fire department to bright lights and room service.

Faster than he wanted, Bryant’s future came flooding into the losers’ locker room.

“That won’t bother me,” he said of the prospects of big-city life. “It’s not something I’d do if it wasn’t for the NBA, but it’s something I can do.”

Reeves, of course, wanted badly to postpone career summations for one more game. But the Bruins wouldn’t allow it.

So there Reeves sat, brokenhearted, attempting a thumbnail reconstruction of his remarkable ascent from lumbering star on his eight-man high school team to the Final Four cult hero who shattered the fourth backboard of his career with a reverse slam at Friday’s practice.

He didn’t want to believe it was over, but it was.

“Who knows?” Reeves said when asked about his future. “This is a situation I’ve never been in. I’ve never lost a game of this magnitude to end a season.”

Reeves was having a hard time coming to grips. The Cowboys had executed the game plan in seducing the fast-break Bruins into a slow-dance. Despite the Cowboys’ 14 first-half turnovers, the score was tied at intermission, 37-37.

Two of the men trying to guard Reeves, George Zidek and J.R. Henderson, were in foul trouble.

Zidek, his 7-foot counterpart, picked up his fourth foul with 18:15 left in the game. Henderson already had three fouls.

No one Bruin could stop Reeves. But, oddly, the game plan backfired. Switching to a 2-3 zone to protect its players in foul trouble, UCLA actually had better luck containing Reeves.

“I was better off when they played man,” Reeves said. “When they got in foul trouble, and went to zone, we had a hard time getting the ball inside.”

Reeves scored only seven of his 25 points after intermission. The zone made Reeves work to get a pass in the post. Weaving his way through a receiving line of Henderson, Ed O’Bannon and Charles O’Bannon, Reeves tired as the game wore on.

And, it didn’t help that the Cowboys’ were clanking the rim with horseshoes from the outside.

Because of the senior Reeves, the Cowboys were able to keep it close. His basket inside with 9:13 left gave Oklahoma State its last lead at 48-47.

Only in the end, with the game lost, was Reeves removed so that he could receive a proper farewell from his growing legions of fans.

The player who once could not run from foul line to foul line without needing oxygen had played every second of the game that mattered.

“Right now, I’m exhausted,” Reeves said. “I’ll be exhausted for a while. It will take me a while to recuperate. But if we were playing Monday, I’d have played 40 more minutes.”

Once the hurt is gone, Reeves will better appreciate what he has done. He came to Oklahoma State as a coaching project, slow and uncoordinated, and leaves with an NBA future.

“It’s been really satisfying,” Reeves said. “No one really believed in me.”

They don’t retire jerseys at Oklahoma State, but Reeves’ might be the first.

“I’m very proud of the way he progressed,” Cowboy Coach Eddie Sutton said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever had a player, from what he was to what he became, who’s made more progress. He’s a remarkable story. He’s certainly surpassed what I thought he could do when I first laid eyes on him.”

Reeves kept getting better, averaging 8.1 points as a freshman, 19.5 as a sophomore, 21 as junior and 21.5 as a senior.

Saturday, though, Reeves wasn’t interested in his growth chart.

“It’s hard to lose,” he said. “This has been a close group of guys to play with. On the road, at home, we were family. It’s hard to accept the fact that I won’t be playing with them again.”