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. We just
beat him by 30.’”
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