Here is a moving story about the storybook Villanova guard, Scottie Reynolds.

The unbelievable story of Scottie Reynolds begins some years ago with a decision made by a young and scared teenage woman.

She was from Alabama and pregnant with Reynolds. She was single and jobless and made the decision to give Reynolds up for adoption. 

This is where the story could’ve taken a much more disturbing turn. It didn’t. Around that time, a young couple was looking to adopt. They were Rick and Pam Reynolds and they took Scottie into their home when he was just an infant. “She knew she wouldn’t be able to take care of me, so she gave me up,” Reynolds told the media recently. “It’s the most unselfish thing she could have done for me. The people I’m with now are the greatest people in the world. Without them, I wouldn’t be in the position I am now. I thank God every day that they gave me the opportunity to live.”

I’d already opined here, obnoxiously of course, about the divine protection of the lone Catholic school remaining in the tourney. Now here’s a real reason to root for them, rather than my religious parochialism.

Then again, I could find a spot in my heart for Michigan State and its center, Goran Suton, whose family escaped Bosnia in the 1990s, as recounted here.

Now that would be a cool final.   

Story via the First Things blog.