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The student walked over to Reynolds, set the stolen chair down on his desk and asked for an autograph.

"What is this?" an incredulous Reynolds asked.

"This is the seat from the Pitt game," the student replied.

"You're crazy. How did you do this?" Reynolds asked him.

"I wasn't even worried about signing. I wanted to know how he did it and how he got away with it," Reynolds said Thursday by phone.

What's even crazier is that that wasn't the only seat Reynolds put his signature to last spring.

"I've signed like two or three other seats," he said.

Six months after hitting a game-winning, driving bucket to propel the Wildcats into their first Final Four since 1985, Reynolds is back on a campus hoping to lead Villanova on yet another storied run.

The Wildcats are likely to be the preseason No. 1 team at the Big East's media day Oct. 21 -- with West Virginia likely to slot in at No. 2 -- and several publications have Villanova picked as a preseason top-five team nationally.

"We have all the talent, we have all the pieces to be a great and successful team," Reynolds said. "But we can't really worry about the rankings and what people are saying on the outside. We have to run our own race."

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Reynolds averaged 15.2 points, 3.4 assists and 2.9 rebounds during Villanova's run to Detroit -- where it lost to eventual NCAA champion North Carolina.

He opted to test the NBA waters, but returned to campus for his senior year after realizing he wasn't going to get drafted.

"I think the experience helped me tremendously," Reynolds said. "I know that as a leader my job is not to worry about myself. I have to worry about everybody else and make sure they're on the same page."

While Reynolds is back, Dante Cunningham, Dwayne Anderson and Shane Clark are gone, and ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas thinks those losses could be significant.

"Losing Cunningham was a big deal, and so was Anderson," Bilas said by phone. "Those were the two physically toughest players, and I think you could make a pretty good argument they were the mentally toughest that [head coach] Jay Wright had last year so that's not going to be easy to overcome. But they should be very, very good."

Villanova will be loaded in the backcourt with Reynolds, Reggie Redding, Corey Fisher -- a Bronx native who led Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick to back-to-back New Jersey Tournament of Champions titles in 2006 and '07 -- and Corey Stokes, who starred at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark.

"Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, Reggie Redding, Antonio Pena, they also have to learn how to be go-to guys," Wright said. "They had the luxury of Dwayne Anderson, Shane Clark and Dante Cunningham who were seniors. Those three were our rocks. Those guys now have to be the rocks. That's going to take a little transition."

Villanova brings in two big men who could have an impact immediately in 6-foot-7 forward Isaiah Armwood and 6-9 center Mouphtaou Yarou, who played together last year at Montrose (Md.) Christian. Yarou, a native of Benin, a country in Western Africa, should add a legitimate shot-blocking presence that Villanova has sorely lacked in recent years.

"Definitely," Reynolds said. "Just with his length and his shot-blocking ability, he can change people's shots coming into the paint."

The recruiting class also includes two McDonald's All-American guards in Maalik Wayns, a point guard out of Philly Roman Catholic, and Dominic Cheek, a 6-6 wing, who starred at St. Anthony in Jersey City.

Duke transfer Taylor King brings an ability to hit the 3-point shot, and redshirt big man Maurice Sutton is another active shot-blocker.

If all this talent can meld together under Reynolds' leadership, Villanova could be poised for another big run.

And that, in turn, could lead to some arena, somewhere having its seats ripped out by zealous Villanova students.

"I'm not saying I want them to steal seats," Reynolds said. "But if they're doing it that means we're doing a pretty good job."