Teddy Allen knows how people feel about him. When you’ve developed the reputation he has, deserved or not, that criticism is nearly impossible to avoid.

At 21 years old, Allen has already gone through more adversity than others do in a lifetime. Some of it has been self-inflicted. Some has been completely out of his control.

So the sophomore shooting guard from Western Nebraska Community College carries a chip on his shoulder – a few of them, actually.

As a basketball player, the 6-foot-5, 220-pounder is the definition of a high-major prospect, as he’s lighting up the junior college ranks with a whopping 32.0 points per game while shooting 54.1 percent from the field and 42.5 percent from behind the arc.

When Allen announced his commitment to Nebraska – whose fanbase knows his baggage as well as any – on Tuesday, it was initially met with some mixed reaction.

Allen understood, and he’s determined to reshape his public perception with a new lease on life in Lincoln, something he refuses to let slip away again.

To say Allen went through hardships while growing up in Mesa, Ariz., would be a massive understatement.

Allen told about his life last year in a great story by The Athletic.

But he didn’t want to rehash his youth in much detail in our interview because doing so would only dredge up pain and emotions he’s still trying to process.

“You know time heals all wounds? But this one hasn’t healed yet,” Allen said.

In summary, Allen's life growing up in Mesa, Ariz., was hard. Harder than most could imagine.

But following his sophomore year of high school, his mother's husband, Norfolk, Neb., native Tim Ballantyne, convinced Teddy to check out a school just outside of Omaha called Boys Town that might help turn his life around.

The structure and assistance that Boys Town provided were exactly what Allen needed, and he instantly flourished in his new surroundings. Allen could also play basketball there, too, and he was a star on the court.

After averaging 31.6 points per game as a senior, Allen was named the 2017 Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year.

But it was all of the lessons that Boys Town taught him both in the classroom and more so about how to be a man that changed Allen’s life.

“I came here when I was 16, and I was just in a bad spot,” Allen said. “But Omaha accepted me, and they rooted for me. It’s just home for me. I became a man in Omaha, so coming back here and being able to put on that red, that means a lot.”

Having found the balance he needed, Allen’s basketball career began to skyrocket.

Boys Town’s administrators recognized his obvious talent, and more importantly, how much Allen needed the game to keep his life on track.

So the school eased its strict rules and allowed Allen to play AAU basketball with the OSA Crusaders program in the summer before his senior year. His recruitment blew up, especially with a series of outstanding performances over the final evaluation periods in July of 2016.

Allen, who went into the summer with just one Division I offer from Omaha, suddenly became a coveted high-major prospect. After narrowing his list of schools to West Virginia, Iowa State, Cincinnati, DePaul, and Omaha, Allen committed and signed with Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers.

Looking back, though, that decision felt more out of necessity than following his heart.

His mother, Elise, was diagnosed with cancer back in 2009, and then it metastasized during his sophomore year.

After going with him to see West Virginia, his mother was physically no longer able to accompany him on any more visits. Allen had only taken an official visit to DePaul and an unofficial to Iowa State at that point, but he couldn’t fathom seeing any more schools without his mom.

He asked her what she thought of West Virginia, and Elise said she liked it. So Allen committed to WVU.

After the second game of his senior season at Boys Town, Allen got a call from Ballantyne. Elise had passed away.

Allen arrived at West Virginia in the fall of 2017, and things never felt right in Morgantown. The sudden freedom he was granted compared to Boys Town opened up doors to some bad decisions he’d made as an adolescent.

As always, Allen was fine when he had basketball. He was a regular contributor off the bench during his freshman season and looked on track to be a fixture for the Mountaineers for years to come.

But Allen ended up transferring from WVU in the spring of 2018, which he described as a “mutual” decision between him and Huggins.

“Both sides agreed that it just wasn’t going to work out,” Allen said. “I definitely could’ve handled myself better at West Virginia off the court, just being more trustworthy in that regard. Nothing really happened, per se, but over the year we just soured on each other, even though I was hooping.”

Looking back, Allen thought all of the newfound freedom he at West Virginia was too much responsibility than he could handle at the time.

“Maybe I just wasn’t ready for all that free time and responsibility coming from where I had come from,” Allen said. “It was a lot to take in. All the restrictions at Boys Town, and then you just get dropped in as a high-major player in a college town. I just didn’t handle all the things that come with being good at this level the right way.”

In May of 2018, Allen transferred to Wichita State, and did so under the premise that he would get a waiver from the NCAA to be immediately eligible for the ’18-19 season.

However, that waiver never came.

Allen was forced to sit out that season, and without the reward of being able to play in games, the same problems that plagued him at West Virginia followed him to Wichita.

“It was just frustrating because pretty much the reason I decided on Wichita State was they were telling me they’d figured out how I’d be able to get a waiver,” Allen said. “I believed in that and I chose them before really exploring a lot of other options I had just based off that.”

His time as a Shocker ended without him ever playing a minute. In June, Allen was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors during an incident that occurred at a woman’s home.

The initial headlines read that the woman had accused Allen of forcing himself into her home, strangling her, destroying her cell phone and stealing her keys before fleeing on foot.

But the story later changed, and Allen was only charged with a domestic violence property crime and petty theft, both misdemeanors.

Even so, Allen was dismissed by Wichita State University administration and left searching for his third school in three years.

“I just want to take responsibility, first and foremost, for the role that I did play in what ultimately got me dismissed from Wichita State,” Allen said. “I’ll say that what was initially put out wasn’t what happened, and that’s not me, and it never has been me.

“With that being said, I still didn’t handle the situation put in front of me that night the right way.”

Allen admitted he was surprised that WSU still dismissed him even after further details of the incident came out.

“If I were to do that, I should have been dismissed and I shouldn’t have this opportunity,” Allen said. “But I didn’t do that.”

As Allen began looking for his next school, he was well aware that his past would impact his future options.

Transferring to another high-major program wasn’t in the cards this time around, at least not yet. So Allen focused on finding a junior college that could get his career – and his life – back on track.

It didn’t take long for Allen to find Western Nebraska, where he instantly connected with head coach Cory Fehringer and his staff. Allen knew the level of competition in the JUCO ranks was nothing like the high-major level, and he fully expected to put up the type of numbers he has so far.

But for someone who less than two years ago was scoring in double figures in NCAA Tournament games, the transition to playing junior college ball in Scottsbluff, Neb., has been an adjustment, to say the least.

“It’s really humbling, but at the same time, it’s actually a great opportunity,” Allen said. “I’m someone who hangs my hat on loving the game, so I shouldn’t really care where I’m playing. I’m just thankful to God that I’m able to play.”

Allen could have gone to any junior college in the country and have individual success, but WNCC had a recruiting pitch that no other school offered.

“Honestly, when they were recruiting me, they said if I go there it might put me on the track to go to Nebraska,” Allen said.

Now that he’s Husker, Allen finally feels like he’s home again.

Nebraska was the state where he found stability and support for the first time, which paved the way for the most success he ever had both as a player and as a person.

Allen is back where he needs to be, and there’s nothing that will keep him from maximizing his opportunity. All he asks from Husker fans is to give him a chance and to embrace him the way he’s embraced the state.

“Just know that my role in the things I’ve done is understood, and it’s been accounted for,” Allen said. “I’ve taken my licks and paid my consequences for whatever has went down, whether it’s just or not.

“All I can do at this point in my life is just move forward, and I want to move forward as a Husker.”