Reggie Hearn: From Walk-On to Northwestern's Leading Scorer

Reggie Hearn started college as a walk-on, and spent more time in the Allison pool room than getting off the bench during his freshman year.  In fact during his first two years, Reggie Hearn combined to play 72 minutes, making his time on the court less than half of the running time for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Yet here we are, three games into the 2012-2013 Northwestern season, and Reggie Hearn is Northwestern's leading scorer, has started 36 straight games (every game since his Junior started), and is undeniably one of the team leaders.  If he happens to lead Northwestern to its first NCAA tournament ever, Hollywood (or at least ESPN's 30 for 30) will have a recipe for a movie longer much longer than Hearn's 72 minutes of playing time during his first two seasons.

I had the chance to sit down with Reggie, the former Mr. Bobb winner (see picture) with the freshest of nicknames, Fresh Prince of NorthwestHearn, to discuss his goals for the upcoming season, the first person he met at Northwestern, and his goals for the upcoming season.  One of the sure to be many future interviews that discuss his unique underdog story.

1.  Talk about your journey on NU’s basketball team.  What was your lowest point during those first couple years while you were sitting on the bench?  Can you contrast those with your highest point of your basketball career so far?

“Well, where to start.  I guess my lowest point was trying to adjust to not playing for two years straight after being one of the top players in the city in high school.  Especially after I got a couple suggestions from the assistant coaches saying “be ready to play” and similar hints during my sophomore year that things might change. Not having those hopes to prove myself come true was definitely some of the most difficult moments.

Going into junior year, I just continued to improve get better, understand the offense, and really get to know the 1-3-1, so when ‘Shon (JerShon Cobb) and Al (Alex Marcotullio) got hurt, it gave me an opportunity to get into the starting lineup.  Since they didn’t necessarily recover quickly, it allowed me to gain confidence and I just stayed there [in the starting lineup].  I think this culminated in my highest point, when we had a very team-oriented victory against Michigan State.”

   2. What have you thought of the team’s results in the last couple years? Were the NIT appearances disappointments in the eyes of the players?

“I think when you take a step back and look at our accomplishments over the last four or five years, it has been impressive given our history as a program.  However, it has been disappointing not making it these the last couple years, and the NCAA tournament continues to remain a goal.  Something that continues to be a driving force of the work we do.”

   3. Three games into the year, what do you believe to be the team’s strengths and where are areas left to improve?

“Our team strengths are that we are a good shooting team. We have been the last few years and I think we still are. We definitely need to improve our defense and rebounding based on our last few years, but it is hard to say right now. I still think we need more time to identify ourselves in the non-conference and time to play against others that aren’t ourselves, since we get tired of playing against ourselves, to really evaluate.”

   4. What do you see your role being during your final year of college?

“I think as a senior my role is to provide leadership and to teach the 9 newcomers how the offense and 1-3-1 defense work, even to non-freshman like Swop (Jared Swopshire) and Niko (Nikola Cerina).

I also want to build off what I did last year. I shot a good percentage from 3 so I need to continue that, but I also see myself expanding my offense role, posting up on smaller guards and driving. On the defense end, my perimeter defense, even though it was a strength of mine last year, still has room to improve. I also want to focus on hitting the defensive boards, which is something we plan to do as a team this year.”

   5.  Question on everyone’s mind. Is Northwestern going to the NCAA tournament? Give us a reason to believe.

“I think we will definitely improve on defense and rebounding with the size we have coming in and the greater emphasis by the program in general on those two things. We also have a lot more depth, which is something that has people talking, but it is definitely true. We can go deeper than the 6 or 7 guys we had last year. 

Do we have you on record saying yes to the tournament?

“We’ll see.”

   6. Who was the first person you met at Northwestern?

“Obviously, one of the better bloggers I know, Mr. David Chase. First person I met at NU during a tour of campus our senior year of high school.”

   7.  Name one thing left on your college bucket list?

“Go to the NCAA tournament.”