Evans to interview for USF job
<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — UL Lafayette basketball coach Jessie Evans spent Wednesday’s first day of the national signing period on the West Coast, and it apparently wasn’t a recruiting trip.
A staff member at the University of San Francisco, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday afternoon that Evans was on the USF campus Wednesday and was expected to meet with athletic director Bill Hogan about the Dons’ basketball coaching position.
A passenger on an airplane flight from Lafayette to Houston Tuesday afternoon confirmed that Evans was on her flight, which left Lafayette Regional Airport between 5 and 6 p.m. Flight connections for the West Coast out of Lafayette go through either Houston or Dallas.
University of Louisiana athletic director Nelson Schexnayder said he received a phone call from Hogan Wednesday morning, letting him know that he would be interviewing Evans as a candidate for USF’s open coaching position.
“We spoke this morning,” Schexnayder said, “and he said that he would be talking to Jessie.”
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/sports/html/398344CD-A1B2-42A6-9133-118D49EF397B.shtml">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com <!--
Evans was not in the Cajun basketball office Wednesday and calls to his home and cell phones went unanswered.
Evans’ candidacy for the USF position surfaced Monday in a CBSSportsline.com report, which cited multiple sources in reporting that Evans had become a candidate for the position turned down by Purdue head coach Gene Keady two weeks ago.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tuesday edition quoted Hogan as saying that two candidates with Division I head coaching experience are scheduled for interviews this week. Hogan would not identify those two or any other candidates, citing confidentiality.
At least three other prospects were interviewed last week — Iowa State assistant Damon Archibald on Monday, Arizona assistant and former USF player Rodney Tention on Tuesday and Connecticut assistant Clyde Vaughan on Wednesday. Vaughan withdrew his name from consideration late last week.
Hogan confirmed Monday that Tention and Archibald are still candidates for the post. Ironically, Tention had replaced Evans on the Arizona staff when Evans took the UL Lafayette post following the Wildcats’ 1996-97 national championship season.
Mike Dunlap, head coach at Division II Metro State in Denver, had expressed interest in the San Francisco position but withdrew his name last Wednesday.
Hogan initially offered the position to Keady, coach of the Boilermakers for the past 24 years and the winningest coach in Purdue history with a 505-249 record. Keady mulled the offer for a week before announcing on April 4 that he had declined the offer and would return to Purdue for a 25th and final season in 2004-05.
USF’s coaching spot has been open since March 8 when Philip Mathews was fired after nine seasons and a 139-123 overall record. The Dons were 17-14 this season and finished 9-9 for fourth place in the West Coast Conference, the league that sent Gonzaga into the NCAA Tournament.
Evans has compiled a 132-81 record in seven seasons with the Cajuns under an initial four-year contract and a three-year pact that concluded this season. The university and Evans were still in negotiations on a new contract before Evans’ name surfaced with the USF search.
His team finished 20-9 this year and won both the Sun Belt Conference’s regular-season overall title and the tournament title. His team lost to third-seeded North Carolina State 61-52 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as the state’s lone entrant in the tournament.
Hogan originally told the Chronicle last week that he hoped to have a new coach by April 15, but said that deadline was not absolute and hinted that some potential candidates had been prevented from interviewing earlier because of the NCAA Tournament.
Schexnayder declined to comment on contingency plans for hiring a coach if Evans accepts the USF position.
“We’re waiting to see what develops or doesn’t develop,” Schexnayder said.
-->
