{"id":294091,"date":"2025-10-11T07:34:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/294091\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T07:34:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:34:28","slug":"sdsus-reese-dixon-waters-has-new-name-number-and-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/294091\/","title":{"rendered":"SDSU’s Reese Dixon-Waters has new name, number and mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"

He went by Reese Waters two seasons ago, was listed at 6-foot-6 and wore No. 14.<\/p>\n

This year: Reese Dixon-Waters, 6-5 and No. 39.<\/p>\n

Same player, different person.<\/p>\n

He has \u201cshrunk\u201d an inch as San Diego State, unlike most college programs, is listing players by their more accurate heights. But he hasn\u2019t shrunk from the most difficult year of his career and of his life, having his refuge, \u201cthat escape,\u201d ripped away by a stress fracture in the navicular bone of his right foot \u2026 take \u2026 forever \u2026 to \u2026 heal. The one-year anniversary of feeling a sharp pain and being shut down from practice was Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It tested him as a player and as a man. He got through to the other side, healthy at last and, he believes, better for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt most definitely was the toughest time in my life,\u201d Dixon-Waters said in a candid and introspective conversation after a recent practice, \u201cbecause I didn\u2019t know how to manage not being able to do the one thing where I get on the court, I don\u2019t have to worry about anything. Everything in my personal life just started crumbling down. It was tough because I didn\u2019t have that escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love basketball dearly. If I went out on the basketball court and that was it for me, that would be perfectly fine with me. I don\u2019t play for the money or fame. I don\u2019t play for any of that. If it was free, I\u2019d still play.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, Dixon-Waters is the forgotten man in the excitement and expectation swirling around this edition of the Aztecs. A year ago, the USC transfer guard was the only SDSU player on the Mountain West preseason all-conference team.<\/p>\n

Now, no one is talking about him. The attention has shifted to the return of NBA prospects Miles Byrd and Magoon Gwath.<\/p>\n

But this team may only go as far as Dixon-Waters takes it. When healthy two years ago, he provided a perimeter yin to Jaedon LeDee\u2019s interior yang. He was the best player on the floor in a signature 84-74 win at Gonzaga, scoring 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting. He averaged 14.3 points on 45.1% shooting behind the arc in nonconference play before tailing off during the Mountain West schedule, partly from a nagging ankle injury that he stubbornly played through.<\/p>\n

\"SDSUSDSU guard Reese Waters (14) shoots against Yale forward Casey Simmons during the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Spokane, Wash. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s getting better,\u201d SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. \u201cYou miss a whole year, your game timing is off. He\u2019s getting in shape, he\u2019s moving well, but he was out of rhythm. Now it appears he\u2019s regaining his rhythm, and that just comes through playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a sixth-year senior. He plays like a vet. He knows what we want. He\u2019s always in the right place. He\u2019s proven to be a good leader on and off the floor. Now, hopefully, he\u2019ll stay healthy and have the kind of season we wanted from him a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The body has healed. The mind has, too.<\/p>\n

Dixon-Waters admits it: \u201cI was selfish.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an odd statement from a guy who, scarred as a child when an NBA player waved off a request for his sneakers, automatically surrenders his shoes any time a kid asks<\/a> at Viejas Arena. Last season, that meant rolling on his scooter to the locker room, changing sneakers and then rolling back on the floor, one arm steering the scooter, the other carrying the shoes. He ran out of shoes at midseason and had to sheepishly ask the equipment staff for more.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have told me they don\u2019t think I should do it,\u201d Dixon-Waters said. \u201cI don\u2019t look at it like that. If there\u2019s a kid who came to the game and his parents don\u2019t have a lot and this is a core memory for him, I\u2019m not going to ruin it and be like, \u2018Nah.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen players do that. If that\u2019s how you live, it is what it is. But I don\u2019t live my life like that. I\u2019m a pretty giving person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SDSUSDSU senior Reese Waters greets fans after their game against USD at Viejas Arena Dec. 7. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

He kept giving the shoes, just not himself. Already an introvert, he found himself withdrawing even further as one bone scan after another showed only modest healing<\/a> and his chances of playing in 2024-25 increasingly slipped away. He ordered Lego kits and built an F1 racing car by himself in the solitude of his apartment. He pushed away loved ones, not wanting them to see him broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t handle it like that now,\u201d he says. \u201cI just stopped opening up to people. To be honest, it ruined a lot of the relationships I had with people I was close with. I just didn\u2019t feel like I was doing anything (productive).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel I was happy and showing joy enough for the situation I was in. A lot of people would die to be in the situation I was in. I\u2019d go home and, not be pouty, but just living life like, \u2018It is what it is.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t living life like this is a great life. Yeah, I still gave shoes away, but I wasn\u2019t helping other people feel good. I was always worried about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hyphenated last name and new jersey number, then, represent an exorcism of those demons.<\/p>\n

He went by Dixon-Waters in high school and at USC before dropping the Dixon at SDSU. The name was his biological father\u2019s.<\/p>\n

After some soul-searching, Dixon-Waters decided to add back his father\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, my biological dad is not in my life,\u201d he says. \u201cNow it doesn\u2019t bother me. I\u2019m over it, really, within the past year. I feel a lot of people run away from those situations, things that maybe are attached to them that they don\u2019t want anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like even though I don\u2019t particularly respect him or like him, he is technically my biological dad and he brought me into this world. So I\u2019m not going to be ignorant to that and take that out of my name. Because that\u2019s who I am and that\u2019s part of my story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SDSU's<\/p>\n

He wore No. 2 at St. Bernard High in Los Angeles and in his last two years at USC, then 14 at SDSU because 2 wasn\u2019t available. It\u2019s available now. He chose 39 instead, a nod to his 3939 street address when he was a teenager, when he first fell in love with basketball, when life had fewer complications.<\/p>\n

This is his sixth year of college basketball. Dixon-Waters enrolled at USC for the spring semester of the abbreviated 2020-21 pandemic season, then played two more for the Trojans and one for the Aztecs before a bone scan revealed what an X-ray and MRI did not.<\/p>\n

He was a preseason all-conference selection last season. He isn\u2019t expected to be when the Mountain West preseason awards are announced Oct. 23, a victim of recency bias.<\/p>\n

The forgotten man.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it bother me? As a competitor, yeah,\u201d he says. \u201cI also like it because I know what I\u2019ve been working so hard for and what I\u2019m capable of. When they see me, then they\u2019ll know. People are like, \u2018Oh, I forget he\u2019s playing.\u2019 That\u2019s cool. I don\u2019t live on social media. I don\u2019t use Instagram or Twitter. People can say whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just gonna play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He went by Reese Waters two seasons ago, was listed at 6-foot-6 and wore No. 14. This year:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":294092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1369,1370,1317,1337,1338,18257,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-294091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaabasketball","14":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115354381780477300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}