San Francisco hires Rex Walters as new basketball coach

4/14/2008 2:53 PM

By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -San Francisco lured former NBA player Rex Walters away from Florida Atlantic to take over its struggling basketball program.

Walters, who had a 31-33 record in two seasons for the Owls, was set to be formally introduced at a news conference Monday afternoon.

Walters takes over for Jessie Evans, who was forced to take a leave of absence in the middle of last season and then was fired last month. Eddie Sutton took over the program on an interim basis for the remainder of the season as the Dons finished 10-21 in their third straight losing season.

Walters will be the third new coach in the eight-team West Coast Conference, following Tom Asbury at Pepperdine and Bill Bayno at Loyola Marymount.

Walters inherits a roster led by Dior Lowhorn, who was No. 1 in the WCC in scoring at 20.5 points per game last season.

Walters spent one year as an assistant at Florida Atlantic before taking over the program when Matt Doherty left to coach SMU. The Owls went 15-13 in Walters' first season, before falling to 16-20 this season. Walters previously spent two years as an assistant at Valparaiso.

Walters was selected 16th overall by New Jersey in the 1993 NBA draft and played seven seasons for the Nets, Philadelphia and Miami. He averaged 4.6 points per game in his career.