FanPost

Where are they now? Men's basketball, 1990 onward

Bumped. Amazing research by KSBruin. - BN

Perhaps something to distract you from the recent disasters...

I started wondering about this when refreshing my memory about a past Bruin while posting some wonderful pictures of the Lizard on this thread a few weeks ago. I had also looked into some Bruins in Europe in comments on this thread. I thought I'd try something a little more exhaustive. So, arbitrarily since 1990 as that's when I came to UCLA, I made a list of all Bruins that have come and gone, listed by the last year they were in the program. I (modestly) think my web research skills are pretty strong, but there are some players who are hard/nearly impossible to track down. I've included some of the end-of-the-bench players if they got into more than a handful of games in their career, but did skip a few. Apologies to them if they're offended.

If I've counted correctly, 50 players have left the program since 1996-97. 33 of them are still playing. 37 have left since 2000-01. 28 of them are still playing - 75.7%. Overall, there are 71 players on this list. Keep in mind, this goes back 20 years. 37 of 71 - 52.1% - are still playing somewhere: 4 elsewhere in the NCAA, 14 in the NBA, 18 internationally, and one in the NFL. (Do you know who?)

A note on sources - I've provided as many links as I can. One of the better sources I've found, at least to point me in the right direction, is this year's St. John's media guide. It's a huge pdf, but on page 34 (Adobe)/page 32 (St. John's), there's a 'where are they now?' list of 'student-athletes under Steve Lavin. It doesn't claim he coached them, but it does say (brace yourself) "The 50-year life plan". Barf. It did give me a couple of tips, though. Interestingly, a little over a third of the players listed (17/47) were what I would call scrubs, loosely defined as maybe getting a few minutes here and there but not over 10 or 20 a season.

This page was monumentally useful.

I've never done freelance work before, but I'm proud of the research and writing here. If you're interested in contacting me about potential freelance work, leave a comment below and I'll find a way for us to get in touch.

Enjoy!

 

1989-90:

Trevor Wilson was the only senior. According to this list, he most recently played in 1998 in Turkey. He is now an LAPD officer, as referenced here and (briefly) here.

1990-91:

No seniors.

1991-92:

Don MacLean, UCLA's all-time leading scorer, played in the NBA for nine years, earning Most Improved Player his second year. His was on different teams each of his last six years, and did a wonderful job of keeping the bench warm most of the time. He's probably most well-known in the NBA for something Charles Barkley said about him in 2000 when MacLean tested positive for steroid use:

"Don MacLean?" Barkley said on TNT. "I've seen Don MacLean naked, and he doesn't use steroids."

He now does analysis aside Chris Roberts on the UCLA Radio Network.

Gerald Madkins is now Vice President of Player Personnel for the New Orleans Hornets.

Darrick Martin played (at least parts of) 13 NBA seasons- there's a great article about his life at the end of the bench here. Go read it. According to his Wikipedia page, he also played for two CBA teams (once the playoffs MVP), one in the IBL, one in Russia, and even the Harlem Globetrotters for a while. He's now the Assistant Director of Player Development for the Timberwolves.

Tracy Murray played 12 years in the NBA (with a career high of 50 points), then two more in Greece. He said in an interview on Bruin Basketball Report in September 2006 that he'd like to get into coaching. In this November 2008 interview, he tells of being a part-time coach in the D-League on top of the broadcasting he was doing, and made me proud to read that he finished his degree in 2006. It's worth clicking through if only to see the picture of Tracy with his head shaven. In addition to announcing work with UCLA, he is working as a shooting coach and guest instructor for his brother Cameron's Prodigy Athletic Training.

1992-93:

Mitchell Butler is an agent. He works for the agent Dan Fegan, who represents John Wall and one other first round pick this year, among others. Butler himself has one client, Avery Bradley, a one-and-done (I've never heard of him) from Texas.

Mike Lanier, frustratingly, I can't find anything about more recent than his decision to transfer here. There are all kinds of links showing him as part of the world's tallest twins, but in 15-20 minutes of searching online I couldn't even find anything somewhat promising.

Richard Petruska: 53 games in the NBA...but he has a ring! Played about 8 years in Europe, as far as I can tell.

1993-94:

Shon Tarver was the #72 draft pick...in the CBA. He never played in the NBA. He at some point played for the Harlem Globetrotters as well. He was an assistant coach at CSUN for a year, runs (ran?) a basketball camp for kids in Ventura County, and according to a CSUN blog's 'where are they now' thread is now a probation officer and assistant basketball coach at Camp Kilpatrick, a juvenile detention camp in the hills between Malibu and Westlake Village.

Rodney Zimmerman was drafted #77 in that same CBA draft. He had jersey #12 for the Pistons at some point in 1995-96, having been released by them on January 5. Strangely, on their 'all-time' transactions list, they released him without ever apparently having signed him. The basketball-reference.com stats for the Pistons that year show him earning $200K, but having no other statistics. This list says he last played in France in 1999. He now heads an " innovative and cutting-edge youth development organization" he founded in Atlanta. His company, Conditioned Minds, has "designed and implemented curricula that incorporate fundamental aspects of athletic training and mental concentration techniques in order to help youth achieve optimal performance levels within the classroom, athletics, and society-at-large."

1994-95:

Tyus Edney played as a pro for 14 years, 5 in the NBA. He led a Lithuanian team to the Euroleague title in 1999 as Final Four MVP. He is best known for this, and is now of course Men's Basketball Director of Operations for our Bruins.

George Zidek spent three unexciting years on three NBA teams, then over seven seasons was on three Euroleague champs - with Tyus the first time! He has a blog on the Euroleague's web site, where his intro reads:

The only European to ever win both the Euroleague and NCAA titles, Jiri "George" Zidek has been a collaborator with Euroleague.net and Euroleague.TV since the 2006 Final Four in his native Czech Republic. Big George, who won the Euroleague with Zalgiris Kaunas in 1999, continues as a color analyst of Euroleague games for Czech TV, not to mention for Euroleague.TV, where he has worked the last three Final Fours.

Ed O'Bannon: If you're on BN, you should already know. There are some good posts on BN here and here.

1995-96:

Kevin Dempsey got few minutes, so he likely didn't play for pay after graduating. He has such a common enough name that I can't track down anything about him.

omm'A Givens transferred to Pepperdine after this, his sophomore year. He quit the team there after a year, influenced by his suspension for hitting a teammate during practice, breaking his jaw. (A highlight, though: he was in the running for Name of the Year in 1994!) He played 23 games for the Roanoke Dazzle of the NBDL in 2001-02 (with JaRon Rush) getting 3 points a game - though his wasn't even the best name on the team: he played with Sah-u-Ra Brown. He's now an executive assistant for the Washington Public Employees Association.

Ike Nwankwo left after this, his junior year, and played as a senior for Long Beach State (though Wikipedia states he graduated from UCLA, he has stats on numerous sites from LBSU for 1996-97). He played in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Portugal, and Finland. He signed with a few NBA teams, but as far as I can tell only played 4 preseason games (with the Lakers!). He played for Nigeria in the 2006 FIBA World Championships. He now runs the Top Flight Basketball Academy in Bangkok, Thailand.

Jim Harrick (I know, not a player) took a year off, then spent two at Rhode Island, beating Kansas in the NCAAs his first year and recruiting Lamar Odom in his second. He then spend four years at Georgia before leaving when scandals blew up. Per Wikipedia (hey, I'm not going to fact-check everything!) he was a scout for the Nuggets for a while and then "helped develop basketball in China." He spent a year and a half coaching the NBDL's Bakersfield Jam, and is now an analyst for Prime Ticket.

1996-97:

Cameron Dollar went straight into coaching, with a year as assistant at UCI, a year as head coach at Southern California College (now Vanguard University of Southern California), a few months as a part-time assistant with Harrick at Georgia, ten years under Lorenzo Romar at both St. Louis and Washington, before becoming head coach at Seattle University last season. They went 17-14 - the first team to post a winning record playing a full D-1 schedule in its first year fully in D-1. (The Harlem Globetrotters list of every player that's ever been a Globetrotter includes him.)

Bob Myers did some TV work for UCLA while finishing his law degree, then moved on to more lucrative work: as of a couple of days ago, he's ranked ninth on the list of agents representing the highest total salaries. He represents Brandon Roy, Dan Gadzuric, Jason Kapono, Jordan Farmar, and 16 others. Not bad money for a walk-on!

Charles O'Bannon played two years for the Pistons. He's played in Japan, Poland, and Italy (winning the Italian Championship in 2003 - with Tyus!). He's played the last three seasons in Japan, averaging 13.4 points this season.

1997-98:

Toby Bailey played two uneventful seasons with the Phoenix Suns, then a year with the ABA's LA Stars. After that came eight teams in Europe, followed by a year with the LA Lightning of the IBL. He's currently playing in Germany. Their press release announcing his signing is probably much more amusing in Google's translation of it than in the original German. The beginning, as presented by Google:

The obligation of the recent sixth new addition has made a long time in coming, has in the night from Sunday to Monday, it went well at last: a well-known in the Beko BBL Toby Bailey will wear next season, the Ludwigsburg jersey.

The 35-year-old small forward is the new starter at the position three in the team of head coach Markus Jochum. "Toby is my absolute desire player and a very good pitcher," said Jochum about the new appointment.

Jelani McCoy spent six years bouncing around five NBA teams. Then came a year in the NBDL, and time in Italy, Ukraine, and China. In the middle of all that, he played two months with the Nuggets in 1997. He's currently playing in Spain - here's an interview (in Spanish) of Jelani from a couple of weeks ago on the team's web site.

J.R. Henderson is now J.R. Sakuragi. He played a year for the Grizzlies, then apparently disappeared for two years (I can't find anything!) before landing in Japan in 2001. He became a Japanese citizen in 2007, changing his name. He's averaging 16.7 points a game this year.

Kris Johnson first played in Russia, then Turkey and the CBA. After that came a stint in Qatar, according to this interview from 2005 - it's obviously been through an auto-translator at least once, as I doubt he would have said that he "played with [UCLA]'s team, seizing the universities' championship," but it's interesting nonetheless. He worked for Fox Sports as an analyst within the past few years, though I can't find specifics on him recently.

1998-99:

Baron Davis left after two years, and is now playing for the Clippers, in his 12th NBA season (stats).

Travis Reed transferred after two years, played two years at Long Beach State, and has played continually since then in the Netherlands and Estonia through last spring. I can't find anything about this season.

Brandon Loyd was named an assistant coach at Cal State LA in September 2002. As of September of 2006 he was an insurance agent with an agency in San Diego. That's about all I can find on him. Lavin's list says he's an insurance executive.

1999-2000:

Jerome Moiso was the 11th overall pick after his sophomore year. He played five seasons over three teams, starting a total of three games, averaging 2.7 points per game, with a career high of 13. He then played seven years in Europe, apparently ending last spring.

JaRon Rush declared after his sophomore year, but wasn't drafted. The Sonics signed him, but cut him during training camp due to issues with alcohol. Found an interesting article about him here - he grew up in Kansas City, and a KC-area producer created a documentary about him (with his involvement) about his transition from high school star to college drunk to NBA wanna-be. From the article:

The most surprising moment in the documentary is Rush opening up about his battles with alcoholism. Rush's problems started in high school when he was 15 or 16 years old, continued at UCLA where he claimed that he was hungover every game and still dropping 20 points,  and he still battles the demons every day.

Sean Farnham surprisingly does not have a page on wikipedia. If you've been in SoCal at some point in the last ten years, you've seen him on TV and/or heard him on the radio, though. Per his page on LinkedIn, he's worked with Fox Sports West basically since graduation, adding local and network gigs on Fox Sports Radio since 2004. He added CSTV to his list in 2007, doing writing and also analysis online. This season he'll be with ESPN, working mostly WCC and WAC games, in addition to a Saturday Big 12 game on ESPNU. Interestingly and perhaps amusingly, ESPN refers to him as a "former UCLA star." Not bad for a player who as a senior played 23 games, started 11, and averaged 1.2 rebounds and 1.3 points.

2000-01:

Ryan Bailey is a lawyer with the Law Firm of Winston McKesson in Beverly Hills. Lavin's info states that Ryan is a former assistant to Gray Davis.

Jason Flowers was a volunteer assistant coach with UCLA, then an assistant at Long Beach State and UC-Riverside before becoming the head coach of the CSUN women's team last spring.

Spencer Gloger...who's that? He's listed on Lavin's list of players...but he never played a game for UCLA. He transferred from Princeton to UCLA, then back to Princeton. It's an interesting story - unless you're in his family, you probably don't remember (or didn't know) a thing about him.

Todd Ramasar is an agent representing Ryan Hollins and Baron Davis, so he's not hurting for money either.

Earl Watson is now on his fifth NBA team, having spent two stints with two of those teams. He's averaging 13 minutes and 3 points a game as a backup for the Jazz, though he's 15th in the NBA in assists/48 min. and 14th in steals/48 min.

2001-02:

Billy Knight is currently playing in Japan, averaging 18.6 points a game as I write this. (The league he's in plays basketball, and they play in Japan, so of course it's called...the bj-league. Seriously.) He made the league's All-Star Game last year, and his team (the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix!) won the league championship. In this interview in the Japan Times we learn he played for half a year with the Globetrotters, and has played in Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Sweden, France, Greece, Venezuela, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and China, and back here in the States in the ABA and the IBL.

Rico Hines was an individual trainer for a few years, before getting a job as a trainer for the Golden State Warriors in 2006, according to this interview.  He "completed his fourth season as a player/athletic development assistant for the NBA's Golden State Warriors" before being hired as one of the Lizard's assistant coaches, according to the St. John's website. If you click through to the website, you'd find this gem among others:

Hines, who was Lavin's first recruit as the head coach at UCLA, is a living, breathing example of Lavin's legacy as a coach and mentor and serves witness to the fact that Lavin does not only develop future NBA pros, but prepares his student-athletes for careers beyond playing basketball.

Matt Barnes started out in the NBDL, then has bounced through eight NBA teams, not playing or scoring much until getting to the Warriors in his sixth year after graduating. Most of us know he's now with the Lakers...but did you know according to his NBA bio he was thinking about trying out for the NFL if he didn't catch on with the Warriors in 2006? The bio states he "was an All-American wide receiver and led the nation with 28 touchdown catches during his senior year" in high school.

Ray Young is hard to track down online. He played for the Globetrotters at some point (their site has an all-time roster, but doesn't give years). In 2005 he was invited to the Warriors training camp. A couple of years ago he apparently played for the Gary Steelheads in the now-defunct IBL. Beyond that? Don't know.

Dan Gadzuric spent eight years with the Bucks, and is now with the Warriors.

2002-03:

Marcedes Lewis...you may be wondering why he's here on a list of former basketball players, if your memory isn't great or you haven't been a Bruin for more than a couple of years. Marcedes played in 7 games as a freshman in 2002-03, totaling 26 minutes on 3-7 from the field, 3-8 from the line, with 4 fouls, 1 assist, 2 TO,  and 1 steal. His 9 points gave him a 1.3 ppg avg. He's of course gone to better things, scoring more touchdowns with the Jaguars this season than he had in his previous four years combined. (Lavin of course includes him on his list.)

Andre Patterson transferred after two years, going on to put up respectable numbers in two years at Tennessee.He played in the D-League for a year after graduating, then was under contract with the Lakers for a few weeks the next October. He played off and on in the NBDL through 2008-09.

Jason Kapono is with the 76ers, his fifth team in seven years in the league. Per his bio on the official NBA site, he's a true rarity in the league: he has zero tattoos.

2003-04:

Trevor Ariza signed with the Hornets this year (as part of the trade that sent DC to the Pacers!), his seventh year pro and fifth team he's played for, though he's switched teams eight times after leaving UCLA (unwisely, IMHO) after his freshman year. He didn't average over 10ppg until last season.

Jon Crispin and his brother Joe now run Crispin Basketball, a company (?) that their website states offers "personal and group training, summer and weekend camps, speaking engagements, and the personal insights you can (and will) find on this site." Jon is also a personal trainer and has appeared in TV and print ads, according to his bio on wikipedia - which he must be confident in, since he links to it from the Crispin Basketball site. Here is a TV ad he did for Coke. He's also doing (or has done?) some work as a basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network.

Ryan Walcott played three years for UCLA before transferring to D-II Grand Canyon University in Phoenix for his senior year. Recently there was a Ryan Walcott coaching in a youth league in the Phoenix area; likely it's the former Bruin. I didn't know/had forgotten his cousin is Mike Bibby. He's got quite a family - another cousin played for the US in the World Cup this year.

TJ Cummings played in China during 2004-05 according to this NBDL page on him...but according to his current agency, he played for the NBDL's championship that season. (I can imagine the seasons differing by a few months, but hard to see how he'd be on two teams on two continents during 2004-05, rather than one being in just 2004 or 2005.) He's played a few seasons in the D-League sandwiched around a year in Korea, and is now back playing in Korea.

John Hoffart played in 18 games over three seasons after transferring in from UCSB. He is now a Senior Associate working on acquisitions and asset management for DiNapoli Capital Partners, headquartered in San Jose.

2004-05:

Dijon Thompson was drafted in the second round, but played only 16 games in the NBA over two seasons, spending much of his first season in the NBDL. He's played in Germany, the Ukraine, and Israel, before now landing in St. Petersburg, Russia....with Brickovic.

Brian Morrison spent time in the NBDL and the CBA. He averaged 8-10 minutes a game in the NBDL in 2008-09 after being signed by the Spurs for that season. I can't track him down past then.

Josiah Johnson is now an associate producer with the NFL Network, per his LinkedIn page (free registration needed). He's also the co-founder of the sports blog jerseychaser.com.

2005-06:

Jordan Farmar is now with the Nets, after four years as a Laker (and sadly only two as a Bruin). His personal site has a video of him and other Nets players sliding down the Great Wall of China (don't ask me...), and his foundation has a site as well. In 2007, he was the first player to be in a D-League game and an NBA game in the same day.

Janou Rubin played on tour teams in China and Germany, spent some time in the ABA, and is currently playing in Hungary. He was an assistant coach for the women's basketball team at Ohlone College in the Bay Area for the 2009-10 season.

Ryan Hollins is now with the Cavaliers, his fourth team in five seasons, and is averaging a career-high 6.2ppg. Did you know: he competed for UCLA in the high jump, long jump, and triple jump.

Cedric Bozeman was undrafted but played in 23 games for the Hawks, scoring 26 points. He's since been in the D-League, Belgium, Poland, the D-League again, China, and is currently playing in Belgium again. Here's a dunk he had while playing in Poland - not exceptionally impressive, but you're probably not used to hearing games announced in Polish. (Fox71, of course, just isn't used to hearing games.)

Michael Fey played in China after graduating, and in Poland and the United Arab Emirates as well. He signed a nonguaranteed contract with the Lakers in training camp for the 2009-10 season, but was cut two weeks later, playing on their D-League team instead. He is currently playing in Japan.

2006-07:

Ryan Wright played for Oklahoma for two years after transferring out. After graduating last spring, he's currently playing in Turkey.

Arron Afflalo is putting up career-high numbers in points, rebounds, and minutes for the Nuggets, after not being given much of a chance in Detroit his first two seasons.

2007-08:

Russell Westbrook. Watch. I mean it. Then read this if you want a good laugh - hope this guy's not your financial advisor.

DeAndre Robinson can't be found playing professionally anywhere, and I can't find him on LinkedIn either. I refuse to dig through facebook to try to find anyone.

Lorenzo Mata-Real played for the Mexican national team, and has spent the last two seasons playing professionally in Mexico.

Chace Stanback spent a year at UCLA, and is now a junior at UNLV.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is in his third year with the Bucks.

Kevin Love. Seriously? How about just November of this year. 14 games. 9 double-doubles. 7 games with 20+ and 15+. Games of: 21 and 22, 32 and 22, 24 and 17, 24 and 14, 22 and 17, 23 and 24, and 31 and freaking 31. In. One. Month. As of Dec. 1, he's #1 in the NBA in: rebounds/game, offensive rebounds, offensive rebounds/game, defensive rebounds, defensive rebounds/game, defensive rebounds/48 minutes, rebounds/48 minutes, and #2 in the league in double-doubles (of course with the first 30-30 since 1982) and efficiency ranking/48 minutes.

2008-09:

Darren Collison impressed as Chris Paul's backup last year, and is now starting for the Pacers.

Josh Shipp is in his second year of playing in Turkey.

Alfred Aboya starting his first pro season in France, then finished it in Japan. He's currently playing for the Hitachi Sunrockers in Japan.

Jrue Holiday is in his second year with the Sixers.

2009-10:

Mike Moser is spending a year sitting out after transferring to UNLV.

Drew Gordon will be eligible for New Mexico later this month.

J'Mison Morgan is eligible this season, and is averaging about 4 points a game for Baylor.

Spencer Soo has many amazing videos online of this athletic skills. His facebook page (can access without an account/without logging in) now hypes a 'revolutionary new workout' at sooperhops.com. As of Dec. 7, the site has been reserved but is not live yet. (I've said I won't dig through facebook for into; thanks to SuperBruinMan in the comments for directing me to this.)

Mustafa Abdul-Hamid is currently playing in Serbia.

James Keefe is currently playing in Spain.

Michael Roll is currently playing in Turkey.

Brickovic is currently playing in Russia on the same team as Dijon Thompson (if you missed that above).

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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