Reid Continued from Page 15 drive in front of me and cut me off,” he said. “I may be sick, I’m so competitive.” Opposing fans love to hate him. Last week, during the Huskers’ game with Iowa State, Cyclone fans booed every time Reid touched the ball. Earlier this year when playing at Wisconsin-Green Bay, Reid taunted angry fans after the Huskers had secured a victory. And against Oklahoma on Saturday, he clapped along with the Nebraska pep band’s version of “Another One Bites The Dust” while urging Husker fans to join in. “Whatever the team needs, I try to do,” he said. “If it takes diving on the floor, taking the charge.... It’s the way I was brought up. You play to win.” Although he talks, glares and fumes at opponents, Reid has never been whistled for a technical foul. It could be called controlled emotion. “Usually when I get into a verbal confrontation, it’s with a player who plays exactly like me,” Reid said. “You just butt heads and play as hard as you can. “After the game, I’d much rather have a player say, T respect Beau Reid,’ than, ‘That Beau Reid is a nice guy. We just beat him by 30.’” Fellow senior Rich King said the Reid mentality has spread to the rest of the team. “I work harder because Beau is here,” King said. “Last year, when he was gone, I didn’t work as hard.” He is fiery with his teammates, stirring them up with speeches before the big game, practicing hard and getting team problems immedi ately into the open. “At team meetings, if somebody has a gripe, Beau is the first one to look at them and tell them to get it off their chest,” freshman forward Eric Piatkowski said. “He lets you know exactly how he feels.” “There’s no maybe with Beau,” King said. * * * Lancaster, Ohio, is about an hour southeast of the state capita!, Co lumbus, which is also the home of Ohio Slate. “Thai’s where I had always wanted to play, in the Big Ten, in front of the huge crowds with all the great players,” Reid said. _ * A _ The Huskers went 13-18 and 17-16 in the trio’s first two seasons. “I guess we felt pressure,” Reid said. ‘There has always been so much more expected out of us three than anyone else on the team. We felt it was unfair at first." Reid suffered through what he called the longest year of his life last season, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a preseason pick-up game. Reconstructive knee surgery fol lowed and Reid missed nine games before returning against Wagner. He was helpless, however, as his knee forced him to miss even a few more games after his return. Nebraska sank to a 10-18 record and seventh-place in the Big Eight. Eighteen losses, and he felt them all. “Last year was especially diffi cult because we didn’t just lose, we They won’t At 23-4, Reid and the Huskers have won the most games in school history, and could record Nebraska’s first NCAA NCAA tournament win. At 22-5, they’re virtually assured of setting a NU school record. “It’s funny how ail Beau and I used to talk about is actually work ing out,” King said. “We thought if we could beat Michigan State, Creighton, we might even be ranked; then we looked ai each other and said, ‘Maybe.’” Reid said this season could trig ger long-term basketball success at Nebraska. “Another goal of ours was to start a tradition where there had never been any,” Reid said. “You have to start somewhere, and we wanted to make something great happen.” * * * Reid graduated with a degree in finance last spring and is pursuing his master’s degree in business ad ministration. He has been named to ail-academic teams each year he has played. “When I’m in school, I don’t want any help from anyone,” Reid said. “I want to get a good grade, I want to get the best grade in the class so people can’t say it was given to me.” He credits his father, former Husker assistant Arden Reid Jr., for instilling that desire. “He taught me how to win, not only on the court, but in the class room,” Reid said. “That carries ovei into life and it’s something no one can ever take away from me.” Reid will marry UNL graduate Julie Saffer in May. King will be his best man. “That’s honestly been one of the greatest honors of my life, to be his best man.” King said. “To be re spected by someone as respectable as Beau Reid.” Without superior physical ability and with a once-torn knee, Reid’s chances of being drafted by an NBA team are iffy. But he said he will be prepared for life whether his basketball career continues or not. “If I have a chance to play bas ketball after college, I’m going te take advantage of the opportunity,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen. I’ve prepared myself for the real world. I think I’ll fit right into the business culture because of my competitive ness. No matter what I do, I’ll always believe in myself and be lieve I’ll be successful.” The only suit Reid plans to wear in the near future, however, is that of Big Eight champion. He will play his final home game March 3 when Nebraska hosts league-leader Kansas in what could be a game for the conference title. MtchetMFaulman/Dally Nebraskan “Beating Kansas in the final game would cap it off for me,” Reid said. “The final game at home, playing for a Big Eight champion ship for the first time in I don’t know how many years, that would be a storybook ending.” There is no word to explain how hard I take losing. I hate losing probably worse than anything in the world_I may be sick, I’m so competitive. Reid Bui after a stellar junior year at Lancaster High School, Reid was participating in a summer camp that featured Ohio University coach Danny Nee as a guest instructor. Then Beau started draining it. “(Nee) had me do some shooting drill in front of the camp and 1 think I made, like, 35 jump shots in a row,” Reid said. “And then he said, ‘I’d like to sign you.’” Nee admits he was impressed. “I’d done that drill at a lot of camps and I’d never seen anybody hit that many shots,” Nee said. Nee followed his star recruit throughout his senior season while leading his Ohio team to a 22-8 sea son. That record enabled Nee to look for a bigger job. He was hired by Nebraska. Reid didn’t flinch in following his new coach: “When he told me it was Ne braska, all I could think of were players like Danny Manning, Jeff Grayer and Milch Richmond. And I said, ‘Hey, I’m with you.’” After sitting out a season be cause of transferring from Ohio in 1986-87, Reid started playing for the Huskers. He faced Iowa State’s Grayer, Kansas State’s Richmond and even downed Manning and Kansas with a buzzer-beater in 1988. Along with Clifford Scales and the 7-foot-2 King, Reid was ex pected to lift Nebraska to a higher basketball level. It didn’t happen immediately. V got embarrassed every time,” he said. “It was very frustrating, be cause that was something I’d never been a part of before, and I’d have rather not been a part of it.” Something else Reid had never been a part of was team dissension, which he said transformed the Huskers from potentially good to miserable last year. “It got to the point where I didn’t come to practices, or I wouldn’t even want to be around the gym,” Reid said. “Everyone’s priorities were so screwed up. It got to where people were saying, ‘If we’re going to lose, I’m going to make sure I look good.’” In that light, Nebraska’s success this year becomes even more amazing. The Huskers returned most of the same players from last year, added a couple of transfers, a couple of freshmen, and have come out near the top of the Big Eight with three conference games re maining. Reid said senior leadership has done it as much as anything. While working with King at a summer job in Wahoo, Reid said the two decided that they, along with fellow seniors Clifford Scales, Keith Moody and Kelly Lively, should leave Nebraska as winners. “All of the discussions Rich and I had centered around team suc cess,” Reid said. “After we talked to the ether guys about it, we all decided that we didn’t want to walk out of here as losers.” Reid battles Missouri’s Jamal Coleman for the ball. “After the game,” Reid said, “I’d much rather have a player say, ‘I re spect Beau Reid,’ than, That Beau Reid is a nice guy. 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