|
A new era in USF basketball began on April 22, 2004 when Jessie Evans, the highly successful head basketball coach of Louisiana-Lafayette, was named Head Basketball Coach of the Dons. In his first season as USF's coach, Evans accomplished many goals. The Dons beat five league champions, including #11 Gonzaga (WCC), St. Joseph's (Atlantic 10), Penn (Ivy), Pacific (Big West) and Denver (Sun Belt). USF also beat Big Sky tournament champ Montana and remained impressive in thrilling losses to Stanford in overtime at the Pete Newell Challenge and at #13 Gonzaga in the final second. Evans also got the Dons into the postseason for the first time since 1998, as USF hosted Denver and Cal State Fullerton in the NIT in 2005. USF became the first WCC team to host a postseason contest. Although the team dropped to an 11-17 record in his second season, Evans continued to build his program by recruiting new players for the future. The Dons, with a brutal schedule that saw them play just 12 of 31 games at home improved to 13-18 in 2006-07, and a third place WCC finish (8-6). The Dons played NCAA powers Ohio State, Louisville, UNLV and New Mexico State on the road. "Jessie has injected a lot of enthusiasm into the USF program," Dons Athletics Director Debra Gore-Mann said. "He has done an excellent job of cultivating the Bay Area basketball community. His recruitment of the best Bay Area athletes is definitely a plus." Evans (159-129 in ten seasons) has been a consistent winner in his 30 years as a coach, including a highly successful run with nine consecutive NCAA bids as an assistant under Arizona's Lute Olson, including the 1997 national championship. Evans' final season at Louisiana-Lafayette (2003-04) was his third consecutive 20-win season as a head coach in the bayou, although the team later had to vacate 14 wins. That season, Evans' Ragin' Cajuns made their second NCAA tournament appearance, where they lost 61-52 to No. 3 seed North Carolina State. In fact, five of Louisiana's nine losses came on the road to NCAA powers Georgia Tech, Xavier, Dayton, Arizona and North Carolina State. Evans was honored by his fellow coaches with the 2003 NABC District 8 Division I "Coach of the Year" regional award. It's the same prowess in coaching and recruiting that makes Evans an asset for the Dons. "I think that the USF program has unlimited potential," Evans said. "This is a great school with a great tradition in men's basketball and it's located in what is, in my opinion, the number one city in the world." Evans was an all-state basketball player while playing four seasons at Pontiac Central High School in Michigan before attending Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti. Evans played four seasons for EMU and earned his bachelor's degree in 1972. He later earned his master's in education at EMU in 1980. Following his collegiate career, Evans served as a player-coach for the Flint Pros in the CBA from 1972-73. Evans began his coaching career at Flint Northwestern High in Flint, Mich. and guided that team to a combined 57-18 record in three seasons. Northwestern was state runner-ups in 1975 and won the Saginaw Valley title in 1976. Evans began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at Minnesota for five seasons, where the Golden Gophers averaged 20-wins per year and claimed the Big Ten title in 1981. Evans coached and helped recruit notables such as Kevin McHale, Mychal Thompson, Trent Tucker and Randy Breuer. Evans also served on staffs at Texas, Wyoming, and San Diego State before joining the Arizona staff in 1988. He helped lead the Wildcats to a 25-9 record and a national title in his ninth and final season there. In fact, Arizona did not finish lower than third in the Pac-10 Conference in any of the seasons that Evans served on the UA staff. Evans helped tutor a total of 14 Arizona players who have played in the NBA, including former pro stars Sean Elliott of San Antonio and Khalid Reeves of the Dallas and current players Mike Bibby of Sacramento, Jason Terry of Dallas, Damon Stoudamire of Memphis, and Kenny Lofton, who's now a baseball player with the Texas Rangers. In all, Evans has recruited and/or coached a total of 26 players who've played in the NBA. As a part of the Arizona staff, Evans worked primarily with perimeter players and overall defense, while also being involved with scouting, athlete counseling and academics. Evans and his wife Nancy, a former counselor, have a daughter Jayda, who's a newly published author of "Game On! How women's basketball took Seattle by Storm" and sportswriter for The Seattle Times; and a son Jarret, who played three seasons at Louisiana-Lafayette, and serves as USF's Director of Basketball Operations. |
|
|||||||||||||
