UWGB transfer Noah Reynolds has been everything the Phoenix expected heading into big game against Wright State

GREEN BAY – University of Wisconsin-Green Bay guard Noah Reynolds got to do something for Christmas this year he didn’t get the chance to do while playing for Wyoming last season.

He spent the holidays with his family in Illinois.

Reynolds and his older brother, UWGB assistant coach Nic Reynolds, hopped into a car after the Phoenix’s win over Milwaukee School of Engineering last Thursday and made the 330-mile trip home to Peoria, where both starred at Peoria Notre Dame High School.

“That was a huge part of me coming here, too, was Thanksgiving and Christmas and getting to go home and see my family,” Reynolds said.

The other part of coming to Green Bay also has worked out well.

The 6-foot-3 junior has been everything the Phoenix could have hoped for since the moment Reynolds entered the NCAA transfer portal and picked UWGB as his new home after a brief detour to the University of Wisconsin.

Reynolds leads the Phoenix in scoring and is fifth in the 11-team Horizon League at 17.3 points.

He’s shooting 48.4% overall (88-for-182) and is tops on UWGB in minutes (33.3 mpg), assists (60), steals (12), free throws made (37), free throws attempted (49) and is tied for first in blocks (7).

One of the best transfers in school history has lived up to the hype during the first 13 games of his Phoenix career, showing why both Wisconsin and UWGB pursued him after he averaged 14.1 points for Wyoming in 2022-23 before his season was cut short because of multiple concussions.

Reynolds committed to the Badgers in April but decommitted two weeks later when he decided the situation wasn’t in his best interest.

The Phoenix received a second chance and finally landed its man.

“I wish those guys the best,” Reynolds said of Wisconsin. “I’ve seen that they have had success, and so I hope they wish the same for me. I feel like everything worked out for a reason.”

UWGB coach Sundance Wicks was an assistant at Wyoming during Reynolds’ two seasons there, and he’s not surprised by anything his pupil has done since they reunited.

Wicks said Reynolds has “100 percent” been the player he believed UWGB was getting when he committed.

A second later, he corrected himself.

“A thousand percent,” Wicks said. “It’s a guy who has been through the trenches. Has been in a good program at Wyoming. Has been coached hard. Who is from this area, this region. I didn’t realize how deep his family was entrenched in this community until you get here, and all his family is here.

“Culturally, competitively, he’s exactly the human he should be for us and what we need. We all have to get better in certain areas. But at the end of the day, I couldn’t ask more of him as a human, how he’s been as a leader, a captain. Spot on.”

That leadership started to show again when Reynolds discussed UWGB’s 6-7 start heading into a Friday showdown against Wright State at noon at the Resch Center.

Sure, six wins is nice for a program that won three games all last season.

But it’s not an overall record Reynolds is close to satisfied with, instead focusing on those potential victories the team has left on the court.

Like the five-point loss to Valparaiso. The six-point defeat against UC Riverside. Dropping a league game at Purdue Fort Wayne by four points.

Those tend to hurt.

“We’ve done a lot, but I’ve always wanted more out of myself and everybody else,” Reynolds said. “The Purdue Fort Wayne game, the Valparaiso game, those are the games I want to close out. I look back pretty critical of myself of those types of games. Like, ‘Shoot, a few different things go our way in those games, and we are looking at whatever record we are.’

“I’m trying to fix the little things so we can clean that up and take games like that away. Games that were super winnable for us, but we just didn’t quite get there. In the second half, maybe we will learn from that and take advantage of those games.”

Wright State presents big test for Phoenix

UWGB is 1-1 in Horizon play. It was picked to finish last in the preseason poll, although it beat a UW-Milwaukee team picked to finish second.

Wright State (6-6 overall, 1-0 Horizon) should be one of the tougher teams in the league with a lineup led by graduate senior guards Trey Calvin (20.5 ppg) and Tanner Holden (16.2 ppg).

The Phoenix and Raiders couldn’t be much different, at least based on some key numbers.

Wright State has the top-ranked offense in the league at 84.1 points. UWGB is 10th at 63.5 points.

The Phoenix has the top-ranked scoring defense, allowing 65.9 points. The Raiders are ranked last, permitting 78.

Wicks has seen enough of Wright State to proclaim them a serious contender.

He is well aware of Raiders coach Scott Nagy from when Wicks played at Northern State and Nagy coached against him at South Dakota State, and he knows all about the quality squads Nagy produces.

“This is a really, really good team, a really veteran team,” Wicks said. “They have got inside-outside presence. An elite offensive team. In games like this, it’s just like playing Fort Wayne. Something has got to give.

"The tempo at Fort Wayne, we actually got them to play the type of game we want to play. A little bit slower. That’s the same thing against Wright State. Can we control tempo, can we dictate pace a little bit? If we can, then we can squeeze out some of their offensive possessions, which are really efficient. They are very elite at it. We have got to be better at what we do than what they do offensively.”

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Home court advantage at the Resch

Wicks talked about the fan support after UWGB’s win over UWM last month, and the team hopes with improved play comes an increase in the numbers coming out to games.

UWGB is fifth in the Horizon in attendance at 1,721 fans per game, which is slightly fewer than the 1,725 it averaged last season.

The team had a season-high 2,320 at the Resch Center for the win over the Panthers, and with league games the rest of the season, it should finish with its best attendance numbers since at least 2017-18, when it averaged 1,840.

That’s still not ideal. They want far more, and it only has a chance to happen by putting a winning product on the floor.

“I feel like that’s a goal for us, can you build something in the Resch?” Reynolds said. “I talked to the guys (from last season) like Ryan (Wade), Amari (Jedkins) and CC (Clarence Cummings III) and they are like, ‘Last year, at times, it was bad. It was empty.’

“I love that challenge because I’ve even seen it at my last school at Wyoming. If you continue to win, more people will show up. More people will continue to support. That’s the goal for me. Can we pack the Resch? That would be a dream come true, to eventually get to the point where this thing is sold out when Milwaukee comes back to town or something like that.”

UWGB’s six-year deal with PMI Entertainment, which manages the Resch, expires after this season.

There appears to be a good chance the two will renew their relationship before the 2024-25 campaign kicks off.

“We are optimistic about continuing our longstanding partnership,” UWGB athletic director Josh Moon said.

The Phoenix has played most of its home games at the Resch Center since the venue opened in August 2002. It previously played at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena for more than three decades.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: UWGB's star transfer Noah Reynolds already has lived up to the hype