By Joey Papania
LSU Sports Information
(3/3/01)
Brian Beshara decided to forgo the suspense of the recruiting process. Before the conclusion of his senior season at Highland Park High School, Beshara made his decision to attend Rice University.
It was an obvious choice for the Dallas native. Rice was a well-respected academic university with talented basketball players. For some reason, the university and the young freshman did not seem to be a good fit. He was ready for a change.
Just across the state line, the LSU basketball program was saying goodbye to head coach Dale Brown after 25 years of service. The Tigers replaced Brown with a young ambitious coach named John Brady who began his search for players to set the foundation for the future.
Brady met Beshara.
“I didn’t really like the direction the program (at Rice) was headed in, and then coach Brady came along,” Beshara recalled. “He gave me the opportunity to play in the SEC, which I thought was the best conference in the country. I thought it was too good of a challenge and an opportunity to pass up.”
That was over three years ago, and as the 2000-2001 season nears an end, so does the collegiate career of the Tigers’ senior captain, Brian Beshara. His four-year stint with LSU has been a roller coaster ride of highs and lows.
He has been both atop the conference and in the cellar of the SEC. He has been a part of a 15-game win streak and a 12-game losing streak. He has played in front of crowds of over 21,000 fans and of crowds less than 5,000.
He has also been asked to play a number of different roles and positions due to a lack of scholarship athletes and has had to step into a leadership role when the Tigers needed it the most.
“I’ve learned how to deal with hardships, and I’ve learned how to deal with success,” Beshara said. “Even the tough times have been good experiences because it has taught me a lot. I have been able to gain some positives even through the tough times.”
The good times came just a season ago. LSU became the first school to go from worst in a division to first in a division since divisional play began in 1991-1992.
Beshara finished the miracle season third on the team in points (11.0) and rebounds (5.1). He enjoyed a mid-season stretch with eight straight games in double-figures including back-to-back games with over 20 points.
The success of the 1999-2000 season was an unbelievable high for the LSU basketball program, but it also distorted the fact that LSU faced NCAA restrictions that limited the number of allotted scholarships.
Having to deal with such hardships can have adverse affects on one’s confidence and patience, but true leaders can see past the numbers. This program is growing, and it is headed in the right direction because of the positive influences of players like Beshara.
“If you are a competitor, you don’t like to lose or take moral victories,” Beshara said. “I have enough foresight to look ahead. I remember losing my sophomore year, but that team didn’t have a lot of team unity or chemistry. Even though we have been losing this season, we have been working hard and staying positive. That’s growth. There are always going to be injuries and external problems that you have to deal with.”
Beshara has passed that attitude on to the younger members of this year’s team. LSU’s 10-man roster includes three juniors, four sophomores and a freshman. The only other active senior this season is walk-on Jack Warner.
Perhaps the true indication of how the program has developed is in the attitude Beshara has helped instill in his teammates. Most will tell you that, if for nothing else, they want to go out winners for their senior captain.
“That means a lot to me,” Beshara said. “I want to leave here with people knowing that I cared for my teammates. I just want the best for everyone on the team, and I hope they want the best for me. It would be very easy for everybody to get down and say ‘who cares about this year, we’ve got next year, we’re young.’ It means a lot to me that they are not doing that.”
In just three seasons, the Texas native is close to becoming the program’s 31st member of the 1,000-point club. In addition, he will likely leave among the top five in school history in three-pointers made. In three years, he has missed only one game and has started in 83 of 84 games in that time span. He has the longest active starting streak of any Tiger with 56 straight games dating back to the Tigers’ third game last season against Oakland.
Both individually and on the team level, Beshara has many accolades to take with him at the end of this season. But with all that he has experienced, what does Brian Beshara feel is his most memorable moment as an LSU Tiger?
“My career is not over yet,” Beshara said confidently. “I have had a lot of great experiences. You might have to get back to me after this season because I haven’t given up on this season, and I think we still might be able to get some positives out of this year. Something good is going to happen. I can feel it.”