CEDAR FALLS --Anxiously, with his arms folded, Carlton Reed sits at the end of the Northern Iowa basketball bench waiting for his opportunity.

As each game passes, Reed's desire to get back on the court grows.

"This sideline thing is getting old," said the UNI junior, who was forced to sit out last season after transferring and has missed the first seven games this year with a broken bone in his left foot.

In essence, Reed has spent the past 3 1/2 years biding his time. After two seasons at the University of Iowa, which he labels the "lowest point of his basketball life," the Waterloo East alum has returned to the Cedar Valley in hopes of resurrecting a career.

It could begin as soon as Wednesday night when his former school comes to the McLeod Center for an intrastate rivalry tilt.

"It's pretty ironic," noted Reed, who will most likely be a game-time decision. "I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. It's more God than anything."

Since playing at the state tournament for four straight years at East - including a championship his junior season - and earning Mr. Basketball honors, Reed's career has been filled with hurdles and heartaches.

"I'm glad everything happened the way it did," Reed said. "I learned everything doesn't go your way all the time. Nobody has achieved anything without going through something. If you want something bad enough, you're going to have to go through things to get it."

The Iowa experience

Coming out of high school, Reed was recruited by several Big Ten schools and had offers from Kansas State, Marquette and Iowa. However, the chance to team up with Mike Henderson (ex-teammate at East) again in Iowa City was too good to pass up.

"I thought it would be pretty cool for two guys that played in high school together to go to the same college and do the same thing," Reed said. "He was a huge part of my decision."

The 6-foot-4 guard flourished immediately as a Hawkeye, scoring 21 points in the first two exhibition games and was considered one of the team's biggest surprises.

"He's got a lot of savvy and poise for a young player," former Iowa coach Steve Alford said at the time. "He's had very few, maybe three, poor practices since we started."

But over time, Reed's role diminished. Even when Pierre Pierce was dismissed from the team, Reed's minutes were limited.

Reed had several discussions with Alford and the coaching staff to see what needed to happen for him to earn additional playing time.

"I asked and never got answers or feedback," Reed said. "It was an indirect way of letting me know I wasn't wanted."

The frustration reached a climax in his sophomore season. Reed appeared in only 21 games and averaged 1.8 points and 0.9 rebounds per night. He was also ticketed for driving with a suspended license.

"I was at the lowest point of my basketball career," he said. "My confidence couldn't have been lower. I was so close to quitting, and quitting has never been an option for me.

"It came to the point where I felt so low that I dreaded walking into practice every day. I dreaded the road trips. No one would to speak to me. I felt like I was an alien."

It carried over into his work ethic.

"I stopped going to the gym to get those extra shots up," Reed said. "I stopped doing the extra things to make myself better. I stopped doing those things that got me ahead in high school to be a Division I player."

Throughout it all, Reed's family was there to encourage him.

"If I didn't have my family, I don't know what I'd be doing now," he said. "I would pray so much when I was going through all that stuff. Whatever problems I had, I presented them to God and he would take care of it."

Once the season was over, Reed - along with teammate Alex Thompson - were granted a release from their scholarships.

"I was playing up to their expectations," Reed said. "They didn't expect me to do much or they didn't want me to do much. What it came down to, I didn't do much."

Searching for a new home

Looking for a fresh start, Reed compiled a list of schools he was interested in speaking to. DePaul, Creighton, Mississippi State, Gonzaga and UNI were among the front-runners.

"I wasn't worried about the name, but where can I go that's going to push me and make me the best player I can be?" he said.

Reed called UNI head coach Ben Jacobson, who had just taken over for Greg McDermott the previous month. The two chatted for more than 2 1/2 hours.

"I was hopeful we would be one of the schools he'd be interested in," Jacobson said. "I was real happy when that phone call came."

After a campus tour and a face-to-face conversation with Jacobson, Reed liked what he saw and heard.

"I remember Coach Jake telling me, 'We have a scholarship if you're interested, but I don't make any promises,'" Reed said. "'You can come here, but you're going to have to work for what you get.'

"That stood out to me a lot. Wherever I went, I already experienced enough bad things that I was ready for some good things to happen. I was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen."

Reed's decision was cemented after speaking with former Panthers John Little and Ben Jacobson.

"I just felt so much positive energy when I came here," Reed said. "The atmosphere, that's what I felt like I needed to surround myself with.

"If I hadn't made a change to come to UNI, my basketball hopes and dreams would have been dead."

Ready to contribute

By NCAA rule, Reed was required to sit out last season. He spent the redshirt year getting stronger, working on his jump shot and defense.

Last summer, Reed got his first taste of competition at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand, but adversity struck again.

After scoring 15 points in the opening game versus Lithuania, the guard went in for a layup against Angola and fractured the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot. Reed flew home the next day and had surgery.

"He played well enough this summer to be in our starting lineup," Jacobson said. "He had an opportunity and played well. Then, all of a sudden, he's out again."

Reed rehabbed the injury and was able to join the team for the start of practice in mid-October. Nearly two weeks later, he had another setback - fracturing the same bone in his left foot, driving off a ball screen in practice. Once again, he had a screw inserted into the bone.

"I've been impressed with Carlton throughout it all," Jacobson said. "He hasn't tried to get out of any rehab sessions or said, 'This isn't fair, or 'Why is this happening to me?' He's never questioned what the medical staff has told him."

With Reed out, the Panthers have won six of seven games. That said, everyone - Reed included - realizes he can bring another dimension to UNI's club.

"When I see us play out there, I feel like I can bring something to the table that we really don't have right now," he said. "As a guard, I can attack the basket and get into the paint and make plays."

Senior Eric Coleman said, "He's a do-it-all type player. He can drive, he can shoot, he can pass. It's good to get him back in the mix, and he'll help us out a lot."

Point guard Jared Josten, who has accounted for the majority of the backcourt scoring, believes it will relieve him of some pressure.

"He has the ability, late in the shot clock, to get his own shot and create for himself," Josten said. "He can score in a bunch of ways, and we need that."

Jacobson realizes it will be difficult to keep Reed out of Wednesday's game, but he is also looking at the bigger picture. After the Iowa game, UNI is off for 10 days before hosting Wartburg. The rugged, 18-game Missouri Valley Conference slate starts at the end of the month.

That said, Reed said there's a "different feel" toward Iowa with Alford at New Mexico and Todd Lickliter as the head coach.

"It's nothing personal down there anymore," said Reed, who still keeps in touch with current Hawkeyes Tony Freeman, J.R. Angle and Kurt Looby. "It's more of a friendly rivalry now, instead of 'Man, I really want to show these guys that I can play.'

"In their eyes, my best was never good enough, so it would have been a sweet feeling to go against those guys and show them something different.

"My health right now, though, is the most important thing, more important than getting in there and playing against Iowa. If it's giving me problems, we'll give it more time to heal."

What's one more game? Reed has been waiting for 3 1/2 years.

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com

- A limited number of standing-room only tickets remain for Wednesday's Iowa-Northern Iowa game in the McLeod Center. Tipoff is set for 8:12 p.m.

Tickets cost $35 and can be purchased by visiting the ticket office in the UNI-Dome or by calling (319) 273-4849.