Technically speaking, most things are better left unsaid

More than a few boys basketball players in the area this season have discovered talk is not always cheap.

There are times it comes with a heavy price.

Two of the better and quieter kids I've covered - Chris Reynolds and Mike Brown - learned of the potential damage of a technical foul in the toughest ways.

Reynolds was a star guard on the 1989 Peoria Central team which lost arguably the greatest title game in Illinois high school history at the buzzer in triple overtime to East St. Louis Lincoln. His toughness was exemplified during a solid four-year career at Indiana for Bob Knight.

Reynolds, now in his seventh year at his alma mater as an associate athletic director, said Wednesday the recollection of his quiet on-court demeanor was correct.

He was the leader of a wonderful Peoria Central team which came to Champaign with a perfect record. Its title-game opponent wound up being an East St. Louis Lincoln team going for a then-record third straight state title.

Midway through the first overtime, Reynolds missed a drive and was called for a foul in the ensuing scramble for the loose ball. He still doesn't recall what he said as he walked away, but most observers in Assembly Hall that night were stunned when he was hit with a technical foul.

"When I look back on it, I still take responsibility for it," Reynolds said. "With anything else in life, you learn to deal with what happened at the time and you have to move on.

"It's a part of life that a lot of things you've done and said you wish you could take back. Sometimes you have to accept responsibility and move ahead."

Central did overcome it to force two more overtimes before it was shocked by Vincent Jackson's 19-footer which prevented a fourth overtime. The mild-mannered Reynolds felt badly about putting his team in that position.

"You try to learn lessons from it and do everything you can to not allow it to happen again," Reynolds said. "You try to grow from it and learn from it and do your best not to do the same thing."

Mike Brown wasn't one to show much emotion or do much talking on the court during a stellar four-year career at Schaumburg. He went on to play at Northern Illinois and is now a varsity assistant at Hoffman Estates.

Ironically, the gym where he now works was the scene of a rare outburst his senior year that wasn't even directed toward an official.

In the third quarter, a Hoffman player said something after blocking a shot of one of Brown's teammates. Brown, who was the Daily Herald's All-Area honorary captain, fired back with what he said was "nothing over the top" but an official heard him and "T'd" him up for unsportsmanlike conduct.

No big deal except for giving up a couple of free throws, right? Oh, except for the fact then Schaumburg coach Bob Williams, who is now at Niles West, has a rule where a player who gets an unsportsmanlike conduct technical has to sit for the rest of the game.

"When he took me out of the game, I was a senior going, 'Come on now, this is against Hoffman. You've got to put me back in the game,'" Brown said. "I said, 'Coach, I'm sorry.'

"He said, 'I'm sorry, too, Brownie. Now sit down.'"

Brown said it was the only technical he ever picked up in his playing career. Fortunately for him, his teammates came through as Schaumburg won.

"I was embarrassed I got it," Brown said. "At the same time, I knew the rule and I wasn't going to complain about it. You have to cheer on your teammates."

Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich also has a similar rule he's had to use this year. Brown thinks it's a good rule - although he wondered what he'd do if he had a player get one in a state championship game.

After all, basketball is a game where all the emotions are right there in plain sight.

But players also need to see the potential price of expressing some of those emotions through the technical difficulties experienced by Chris Reynolds and Mike Brown.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com