The 4 who transferred: where are they now?

[FeliSilvestris]

A post in another thread made me curious about the current status of the 4 pretty good BkB players (one actually excellent, since he ended up a first-round NBA pick), all four members of the 1988-89 freshman class, who prematurely left (<---) NU: Rex Walters, Kevin Nixon, David Holmes and Evan Pedersen.
Walters ended up being a major contributor at Kansas, a 1st round NBA pick, had a relatively long NBA career (7 years) which he prolonged a few years playing abroad. Since, he also has had substantial coaching experience, having once been voted coach of the year at the WCC (same conference of national runner-up Gonzaga), and is now coaching in the NBA development league. If CCC were to leave for whatever reasons, perhaps RW should be kept in mind as a possible coaching candidate.

The others didn't do quite as well athletically, but seem to be doing OK. Pedersen left for a Mormon mission, and eventually played significant minutes at Saint Louis. He seems to still be in the SL area, involved with Pharma sales. Nixon played significantly at BYU, was inducted into in Iowa's High School Athletic Association HoF a few years back, and has a son playing BkB for BYU (apparently doing a Mormon mission these days). Holmes graduated from Rice, played pro in Europe, and is now a practicing lawyer.

There you have it. All seem to be doing OK.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Rex Walters LEFT NU. That doesn't strike me as a basis to recruit kids to play for him here. He also has nothing like the chops that you would want to have someone follow CCC (if he were to leave, which he won't).

Pedersen didn't just play "significant minutes" at SLU. He started for an NCAA tourney team. So did David Holmes at Rice and Kevin Nixon at BYU. Had those 4 stayed, and had Kevin Rankin, Pat Baldwin, and Cedric Neloms on the roster in their senior years, we would have gone dancing for sure.

 

[FeliSilvestris]

Rex Walters LEFT NU. That doesn't strike me as a basis to recruit kids to play for him here. He also has nothing like the chops that you would want to have someone follow CCC.

Well, the guy played 2 full seasons at NU and I believe was the leading scorer his 2nd year. It would have been nice if he had stayed. However, holding against him a decision he made when he was 19-20 seems excessive. What about guys who turned down a NU offer to play elsewhere...that's almost like if they took the offer but later changed their mind and went elsewhere... should they be eliminated also? Be careful...that might eliminate CCC!!

At the end of the day, NU wants the best possible coach that it can afford at the time the decision is made (whenever)...if that coach happens to be a graduate, fine, it may also be someone who transferred out when he was 19-20 y.o., or someone who turned down NU when he was 17, or someone who had no prior association of any kind with NU...if the best available coach happens to be RW (I only said he should be CONSIDERED, not that the job was his) so be it...if it's someone else then take someone else. The important thing is to pick the best available candidate at the given moment.

 

[mikewebb68]

Rex Walters LEFT NU. That doesn't strike me as a basis to recruit kids to play for him here. He also has nothing like the chops that you would want to have someone follow CCC (if he were to leave, which he won't).

Pedersen didn't just play "significant minutes" at SLU. He started for an NCAA tourney team. So did David Holmes at Rice and Kevin Nixon at BYU. Had those 4 stayed, and had Kevin Rankin, Pat Baldwin, and Cedric Neloms on the roster in their senior years, we would have gone dancing for sure.

Took the bait I see.