|
 Jessie
Evans has sparked a new excitement for USF
basketball after just one year, and with good
reason.
In his first year, he returned USF to postseason
play, with an NIT berth, and brought the Dons to a
17 win season. He not only got the Dons into the
NIT, he was able to coach the Dons to an opening
round win over Sun Belt West regular season champion
Denver. USF became the first WCC team to host a
postseason NIT game.
During the season, Evans defeated five regular
season league champions: Gonzaga (WCC), Pacific (Big
West), Penn (Ivy), St. Joseph's (Atlantic 10) and
Denver (Sun Belt West). USF also defeated Big Sky
tournament champion Montana and lost in overtime to
NCAA teams Stanford and St. Mary's (3ot), in
addition to giving Gonzaga its toughest game in
their new arena (losing in final second).
The highly successful former head basketball coach
of Louisiana Lafayette became head coach of USF on
April 22, 2004.
Evans (132-81 in seven seasons at University of
Louisiana) has been a consistent winner in his 26
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.
The 2003-04 campaign was his third straight 20-win
season. He took the Ragin' Cagins to the NCAA
tournament, where they lost 61-52 to highly ranked
North Carolina State. In fact, five of his team's
nine losses came this year on the road to NCAA
powers Georgia Tech, Xavier, Dayton, Arizona and
North Carolina State, all away from home.
Evans was honored by his fellow coaches with the
2003 NABC District 8 Division I "Coach of the Year"
regional award.
"We are thrilled to welcome Jessie to the USF
family," said Hogan in naming the announcement. "He
meets all the criteria we had in mind and more. He
has been associated with winning programs, has
recruited successfully on the West Coast, nationally
and internationally, and is an excellent on court
coach. Jessie is a class individual.
"I would like to thank the members of the search
committee, the administration and the athletic
department staff who helped us with this decision."
"He is coming off an NCAA tournament season at
Louisiana Lafayette, his third 20 win season in a
row. Jessie thinks that he can be successful here
and he convinced us that he can."
"I think that the USF program has unlimited
potential," said Evans in accepting the position.
"This is a great school with a great tradition in
men's basketball. It is located in what is in my
opinion the number one city in the world. Bill Hogan
and the administration have convinced me that the
school is committed to a strong athletic program.
I'm excited to get started!"
Evans, who also served on the staffs at Texas,
Wyoming, San Diego State and Minnesota before
joining the Arizona staff in 1988, helped lead the
Wildcats to a 25-9 record and that national title in
his ninth and final year there. However, success
wasn't anything new since Evans joined the staff in
1988 after two years at Texas.
In serving as recruiting coordinator and assisting
in all aspects of the Wildcat program, he helped
Arizona average 27 victories per season during his
stint there, including win totals of 24, 24, 29, 23,
26 and 25 over the past six seasons.
The Wildcats, who were 26-7 in 1995-96 and reached
the NCAA regional semifinals, did not finish lower
than third in the Pacific 10 Conference in any of
the nine seasons that Evans served on the UA staff.
Evans also helped tutor a total of 14 Arizona
players that have played in the NBA, including Sean
Elliott of the San Antonio Spurs, Mike Bibby of the
Sacramento Kings, Jason Terry of the Atlanta Hawks,
Damon Stoudamire of the Toronto Raptors, Khalid
Reeves of the Dallas Mavericks and Kenny Lofton, now
out of pro basketball but continuing his pro
baseball career with the New York Yankees. In all,
he has recruited and/or coached a total of 26
players who played in the NBA during his career.
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 served for two seasons on the Texas staff from
1986-88 prior to going to Arizona, and previously
served as assistant coach at Wyoming from 1984-86
and at San Diego State from 1982-84 after beginning
his collegiate coaching career at Minnesota, where
he served for five years from 1976-81.
He was an all-state basketball player while playing
four years with the varsity team in high school in
Pontiac, Mich., at Pontiac Central before going to
Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, where he played
collegiately for four years before earning his
bachelor's degree in 1972. He later earned his
master's degree in education from EMU in 1980.
Following his collegiate career, he served as
player-coach with the Flint Pros in the Continental
Basketball Association for one year in 1972-73,
before going into coaching at Flint Northwestern
High in Flint, Mich. He guided that team to a
three-year record of 57-18, to a state runner-up
finish in 1975 and to the Saginaw Valley title in
1976.
In his five years at Minnesota, the Gophers averaged
20 wins per year and claimed the Big Ten title in
1981. He coached and helped recruit such notables as
Kevin McHale, Mychal Thompson, Trent Tucker and
Randy Breuer during that time.
Evans left Minnesota for two seasons at San Diego
State, where he helped develop future NBA standout
Michael Cage, and followed that with a two-year
stint at Wyoming. He helped guide the Cowboys to the
Western Athletic Conference title and to the 1986
NIT finals while coaching standouts Fennis Dembo and
Eric Leckner.
He left Wyoming in 1986 to join the staff at Texas,
where he coached Lance Blanks and Travis Mays,
before joining the Arizona staff in April 1988
following UA's Final Four trip that year.
During his nine years at Arizona, the Wildcats won
five Pac-10 titles and finished second in each of
the past three seasons, while participating in nine
straight NCAA Tournaments. The Wildcats were also
ranked No. 1 in the nation in two different seasons
in 1988-89 and 1990-91 and were ranked as high as
No. 2 in 1989-90. Arizona also reached the Final
Four in 1993-94 after winning the NCAA West
Regional.
Evans' recruiting success likely had a great deal to
do with that on-court success, with his recruiting
classes consistently ranking among the nation's
best. His 1996 recruiting class was ranked in the
top five nationally by virtually every national
recruiting service.
Evans and his wife Nancy, a former counselor, have a
daughter Jayda, a sportswriter with the Seattle
Times, and a son Jarret, who played two years at
Louisiana-Lafayette. |
