San Diego State’s basketball program has always searched for under-the-radar recruits whose greatest asset is the invisible chip on their shoulder.
The latest: A transfer guard who had no Division I offers out of high school, spent two seasons at Division III University of St. Thomas just down the street from his home in Houston, then a year at Prairie View A&M, then one at Rice.
Nick Anderson committed to the Aztecs on Tuesday morning after quietly entering the transfer portal last week and visiting Montezuma Mesa over the weekend with no social media fanfare.
SDSU will be his fourth school in as many years, but it’s not what you might think.
“I know there’s a lot of transferring going on every day, guys are going from school to school for whatever reason,” Anderson told a Rice athletic department podcast in February. “But I feel like my journey, it hasn’t been about jumping ship because of not liking somewhere. I think mine has been all about growth.
“Each step has been to a bigger division or being seen more, better talent, bigger guys, just trying to evolve myself as a player more and more.”
Anderson, a classic shooting guard variously listed at 6-foot-3 and 6-5, averaged 18.9 points and 5.3 rebounds in 12 games with Prairie View A&M before a season-ending injury. At Rice in the American Conference, he played in all 31 games and started 29, averaging 15.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 40% on a high volume of 3s (210 attempts).
His advanced analytics are even more impressive.
His Player Efficiency Rating (PER) was 21.6 at Prairie View and 21.3 at Rice, which would have ranked second last year at SDSU among rotation players and first among guards.
His Kenpom offensive rating of 125.5 was second in the American among players used on at least 20% of possessions and higher than any SDSU guard since Jordan Schakel’s 130.8 in 2020-21. (Taj DeGourville, the guard who jumped in the transfer portal Saturday, was last on the 2025-26 team at 94.3.)
His estimated win share was 4.0. The highest on SDSU last season was BJ Davis at 3.4.
His high efficiency comes from 3-point accuracy and a low turnover rate, which was 7.4 over 100 possessions at Rice. SDSU’s best last season was Tae Simmons at 9.0. Most Aztecs were in the 15 to 20 range.
“Rarely do you get guys with his combination of athleticism and shot-making ability,” Rice coach Rob Lanier said of Anderson on the podcast. “Those things come naturally to him. Now the decision-making, the aptitude for scouting reports and that kind of stuff, you can see as we’ve gone through the season that he’s got better and better at his grasp of what goes into winning.
“I think he’s got a chance to be really, really good.”
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Anderson becomes the second commitment of the spring transfer market, joining 6-11 Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry from Sacramento State. Both have one year of eligibility remaining.
Coach Brian Dutcher still has significant work to do, though. DeGourville became the sixth player to enter the transfer portal.
With three seniors, that means nine of last season’s 11-man rotation are likely gone. The only expected rotation returnees are Simmons and Elzie Harrington, both true freshmen.
Even with the addition of Anderson and Cherry, the Aztecs still have six available scholarship spots.
Anderson gives the Aztecs a solid backcourt trio with Harrington and junior Latrell Davis, who transferred from San Jose State last spring but opted to use his redshirt season once Miles Byrd withdrew from the NBA Draft. Between the three, they shot a combined 39.8% on 3s in their most recent seasons played.
“Nick is such a positive, good-natured young man that he’s a joy to coach,” Lanier said in February. “I think his good nature, his approach to the game, sometimes can almost give off a level of aloofness. What I’m learning being around him is he plays hard and cares a lot.”