Rodney Martin pulled his cell phone out and dialed John Stovall from Nike to say that he just watched a potential pro.
The player was Da’Sean Nelson, a then-freshman at Rogers. Five years later, Nelson is taking the biggest step forward in his basketball career, signing as a junior-college transfer with DePaul University.
“I feel like I can be a versatile forward,” the 6-foot-8, 190-pound forward said. “I can take someone smaller than me in the post area. I can take someone bigger than me out to the perimeter. Scoring at all three levels and being able to guard at all three levels is big for me.”
For the past two seasons, Nelson played at Kilgore College, a junior college located 120 miles east of Dallas. He averaged 13.6 points and 6.2 rebounds, leading Kilgore to a 31-3 record in 2021-22 and an 18-6 record in 2020-21.
Nelson was first-team All-Region XIV and ranked among the top 20 JUCO players in the country, choosing DePaul over Fresno State. He had six double-doubles last season, reached double-figures scoring in 21 games, and scored 20 or more points five times, including a career-high-tying 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting in an 83-71 win at Grayson College.
“A proven winner at the junior college level, Da’Sean adds a great deal of athleticism and physicality to our roster,” DePaul coach Tony Stubblefield said. “Da’Sean finds a way to impact the game with and without the ball on the offensive end. Defensively, he can guard multiple positions and does not shy away from contact.”
The offers started rolling in last summer for the former City League co-player of the year after Nelson helped lead Kilgore to the NJCAA tournament in 2020-21. Texas A&M, Cincinnati, Southern Methodist, Kent State, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Florida International, Drexel, Bryant, and Stony Brook all offered scholarships.
“The competition in the Big East is a very high level,” Nelson said. “A lot of other schools who were recruiting me couldn’t offer as high a level as the Big East. Almost half of the Big East was in March Madness.”
Nelson was a member of the All-Blade team as a senior in 2019-20, the same year he earned All-Ohio special mention honors. It was three years after Martin first watched Nelson, and Martin happened to be Nelson’s head coach during that 2019-20 season, as the duo guided the Rams to a 22-3 record, a top-10 state ranking, and a regional semifinal berth until the coronavirus pandemic derailed the postseason.
Martin’s opinion of Nelson hasn’t wavered. Now, he’s convinced that Nelson has what it takes to compete in one of the best conferences in college basketball.
“Da’Sean has a great basketball IQ,” Martin said. “He grasps concepts really quickly. He’s hard-working, coachable. He has a passion for the game. He’s matured a lot since going to Kilgore. I think DePaul is getting a quality young man with untouched potential. He’s just going to get better as he matures and continues to grow.”
Overwhelming is the word Nelson used to describe his re-recruitment, happy to be wanted but deluged with information in a small window of time. With the search for a new playing home in the past, Nelson is eager to begin his new basketball life.
“I always want to be in the best situation and be challenged,” he said. “If it’s easy, there’s no point in doing it.”
What Martin sees a half-decade later is an even better version of that high school freshman with a bright future.
“It’s going to be a learning curve, but with [Nelson’s] competitive spirit, his IQ, and his drive, once he gets used to it, it’ll be just like anything else. He’ll play at that level,” Martin said. “His game is going to elevate because he has to play at a high level every night in the Big East.”
First Published April 17, 2022, 2:03 p.m.