Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame enshrinee Jason Rabedeaux, who later enjoyed a successful coaching career, died in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday at the age of 49. Rabedeaux starred for UC Davis men's basketball from 1983 to 1988, ranking seventh among the program's all-time scoring leaders at the time of his graduation.

Born on April 4, 1965 in Aurora, Illinois, Jason Harrison Rabedeaux starred in basketball, baseball and football at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. At the urging of his father, Clayt, an assistant athletics director at the University of Nevada and a longtime friend of beloved Aggie coach Bob Hamilton, the young Rabedeaux left his Midwest roots to play for UC Davis in 1983.

Initially a driving and slashing player who averaged better than 10 points per game as a freshman, Rabedeaux tore his anterior cruciate and medial cruciate ligaments during a pick-up game in the fall of 1985. In that era, such an injury often translated to the end of a career. Rabedeaux refused to call it quits. He underwent three hours of surgery, sixth months on crutches and a full year of intense rehabilitation. When he returned to action for the 1986-87 season, Rabedeaux wore a large knee brace that limited his mobility.

However, while Jason Rabedeaux was forced to change his style of game, the game changed its style to Jason Rabedeaux. The NCAA adopted the three-point shot in 1986. The Aggie guard became the program's first sharpshooter to benefit from the new rule. He hit 52 treys in his junior year to earn All-Northern California Athletic Conference honors, then improved to 80 in 1987-88. That season total stood as a school record for 17 years until Fowzi Abdelsamad eclipsed it in 2005.

Rabedeaux's three-point goals were often punctuated with his own arms raised straight into the air in imitation of the official's signal. When he connected at Recreation Hall, public address announcer Stan Nosek's battle cry of "Rabba-dabba-doo" echoed from the rafters.

In 1995, one year after Coach Hamilton entered the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame, Rabedeaux followed with his own induction. By then, his college coaching career was in full force: he had followed Kelvin Sampson to Oklahoma that fall after spending four years as Sampson's assistant at Washington State. In 1999, the 34-year-old Rabedeaux took over as head coach at UTEP, replacing the legendary Don Haskins. The Miners improved to a 23-9 mark in 2000-01, earning a berth in the National Invitational Tournament. For his part, Rabedeaux won Western Athletic Coach of the Year honors from The Sporting News.

After departing UTEP in 2002, Rabedeaux briefly stepped away from the coaching world before returning as a director of basketball operations at Marquette. He then went overseas, coaching professional ball in China, Japan and Bahrain before taking the reins of Vietnam's first professional basketball team, the Saigon Heat. Rabedeaux had guided the Heat to a home win over the Indonesia Warriors the night before his death.

According to Vietnamese sources cited by outlets ranging from the Japan Times and El Paso Times, he was found unconscious early Monday morning at his Ho Chi Minh City home. He was pronounced dead after being relocated to Franco-Vietnamese Hospital.

Rabedeaux finished his UC Davis career as the ninth player in school history to surpass the 1,000 career-point threshold, totaling 1,112. Entering the 2014-15 season, he ranks 15th in program annals. He also holds the distinction of being the first Aggie to shoot better than 90 percent from the free-throw line, which he did in his senior season.