By Aaron Latham
Arizona Daily Wildcat
MIAMI Ä Last season, Khalid Reeves was leading the Arizona men's basketball team to its second Final Four appearance and through a hard-fought game against eventual national champion Arkansas.
But these days, while his backcourt partner Damon Stoudamire has taken over the team's No. 1 scoring chores, Reeves is laboring through a season with the Miami Heat as an NBA rookie after being selected 12th in the first round of the draft.
In limited action, he is averaging 6.6 points per game (through last weekend's games).
The Heat granted Wildcat photographer Aaron Latham a brief interview with Reeves following Miami's Dec. 26 game against the Houston Rockets. What follows is that interview.
Wildcat: How do you like the NBA versus college ball?
Reeves: I prefer the NBA. You play with a lot better players and you have a lot of freedom out there. It's a 24-second shot clock Ä it's a lot different from college.
Wildcat: Is it more physical than the college game?
Reeves: I would say some of the players are bigger, stronger and faster. You know, it's hard to be a small person and be able to play well.
Wildcat: Do you think your team is using you to your full potential?
Reeves: I don't know, that's a hard question to answer. It's up to the coaches, and you never question the coaches.
Wildcat: How does it feel to go from the UA, where you are a big fish, to here, where you are kind of a regular guy? Is it hard?
Reeves: It's not hard at all. I would never consider myself a (celebrity) person at the UA anyhow, you know, I was just like any other person out there. And that's how I always treated it. It's just something that I do, something I like doing, and it's just a game. You've got to live on.
Wildcat: You're from Queens originally, and when you came to the UA you said you were having trouble getting used to a small town like Tucson. Are you fitting in well here in Miami? Do you like the city?
Reeves: Oh yeah, most definitely. It's a nice city Ä a bigger city than Tucson Ä and it's right on the East Coast. It's up the block from New York, so, you know, whenever I want a chance to go back home I can go back home.
Wildcat: Do you go home a lot?
Reeves: I haven't been home lately, but the next break that we have, I might just go back home. But it's cold up there, so it might not be soon.