After all, lifelong teammate Bryan McCullough just can’t seem to shake Reddick.

Not that McCullough, the county’s basketball player of the year for 2001, minds. McCullough is more elated than anyone that Reddick will join him on the UNC Asheville basketball team this fall.

McCullough and Reddick, fixtures on North’s recent 27-1 powerhouse, had already been tabbed as a tag-team for the East-West All-Star Game. And now this. Four more years of fellowship and fun.

This is going to bring back memories of those Western Carolina teams of a few years back that had three Rowan players — West’s Joel Fleming and Paul Cuthbertson and Salisbury’s Bobby Phillips.

“Bryan said, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,’ when I told him I was coming,” laughed Reddick. “This is a big thing for Bryan — and for me.”

“It’s going to be good for both of them,” said North coach Kelly Everhart. “I think they go back together all the way to Junior Hornets. It’s nice to see a North duo do something like this.”

Asheville head coach Eddie Biedenbach has obviously been watching lots of McCullough tape in recent months and when you watch Cavalier video, it’s hard not to notice that tall guard who keeps making jump shots. McCullough and Everhart enthusiastically recommended Reddick and Biedenbach was sold when Reddick arrived for a campus visit and he got to see him up close.

“Eddie loves those big guards and I think he was very impressed when he saw Marcus in person,” said Everhart. “He was tickled to death that Marcus really is 6-3 1

Reddick, a shooting guard, will join an impressive freshman crop that includes 6-11 and 6-9 big men, the 6-6 McCullough, a 6-2 point guard, and 6-6 Fayetteville swingman Julian Capel, a cousin of UNC’s Jason Capel.

Proving once again that it’s a small, small world, Biedenbach, a standout at N.C. State in the ‘60s, related the chain of events that led him to McCullough and Reddick.

Everhart, a lifelong State fan, is too young to remember Biedenbach, but says his dad talked about the feisty guard nicknamed “The Pickpocket” quite often. The 6-2 Biedenbach made first-team All-ACC in 1966, missed all the next season with a back operation, then showed his toughness by coming back to repeat on the all-league team in ‘68.

Off the court, though, things didn’t run quite as smoothly for Biedenbach, who says he “was not exactly in trouble, but was often on the edge” during his days in Raleigh. The guy who kept Biedenbach on the straight and narrow was his Wolfpack teammate, Sam Gealy, a household name to Rowan hoops fans.

“Sam was older than me and I was playing ahead of him, but he still went out of his way to help me,” said Biedenbach.

Gealy went on to coach hoops at North Rowan High (before he had all those great Salisbury High teams). The star of Gealy’s second Cavalier squad in 1979 was Kevin McCullough, Bryan’s father.

“I think that my history with Sam and Kevin really helped us make a connection with the North kids,” said Biedenbach.

Biedenbach reached the NBA, but his career with the Lakers was over after a mere 18 minutes of court time. His timing was awful. He arrived in 1969 when the L.A. backcourt consisted of legends Jerry West and Gail Goodrich. Biedenbach went 0-for-6 from the field in his seven-game NBA career.

Fortunately, he quickly earned a reputation as a much straighter shooter after he joined the coaching ranks.

n

Winston-Salem State had appeared to be Reddick’s most likely destination until last week. But when Rams head coach Rick Duckett joined Dave Odom’s staff at South Carolina, Reddick said he just didn’t know what would happen in Winston.

“I thought about going a lot of places,” said Reddick, who averaged 13.4 ppg as a senior. “Prep school, junior college, everything. There’s a lot of pressure on you when it’s getting late and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

But then opportunity knocked at Asheville.

“Coach B told me they’ve got a deep need for guards,” said Reddick. “He believes I can come in there and help out. I like him a lot. He and his players treated me like I was something.”

The Bulldogs have three starters and seven lettermen back from a team that won 15 games against a first-rate schedule. While McCullough figures to play early and often, Reddick knows he’ll have to battle for playing time.

“I know it’ll be tough, but playing on a Division I team is a big chance for me,” Reddick said. “My goal for the first year is to become someone the team can depend on.”

As usual, Reddick, who plans to study Computer Science, has his priorities in order. His dad, Mason, has already taught him basketball is the means, not the end.

“I love to play ball,” said Reddick. “But the main thing is to get my degree. This is a chance to make things better in my life.”

n