USF finds the man it wants Evans to be Dons' coach
Jessie Evans, following a successful seven-year stint at Louisiana, apparently has been chosen as the coach charged with leading USF basketball back to its glory days.
After a six-week search, Evans has emerged as the likely successor to Phil Mathews.
When Mathews was fired March 8, USF athletic director Bill Hogan said he wanted the team to consistently record 20-win seasons and be a regular participant in the postseason.
Evans, whose Ragin' Cajuns have gone 132-81 overall, earned four 20-win seasons -- including the past three in a row -- and appeared in two NCAAs and two NITs in the past five years, apparently fits the bill.
An announcement is expected this week, although Hogan wouldn't confirm the hire or offer any details.
"We're very close," he said Tuesday.
Evans' current contract expires this year. He made $170,000 a year at Lafayette. The USF base salary is thought to be $200,000-plus. Evans, who was in San Francisco last week meeting with Hogan and other officials, wouldn't confirm the deal.
"I've been out and I've seen the campus," he said by phone from Louisiana. "I'm very familiar with San Francisco and I know Bill. That's enough for me. . .. I was very impressed with what I saw and the direction they're going and what they're ready to do."
At the same time, Evans noted that his "best team" was coming back at Lafayette next season. The Ragin' Cajuns were 20-9 in 2003-04, ending their season with a 61-52, first-round loss to North Carolina State in the NCAA Tournament.
Still, Evans stressed his attraction to USF.
"It's the classiness of the program, the area, the school itself, the history," he said.
Evans has West Coast connections. He was an assistant at San Diego State for two years and at Arizona for nine years, during a span when the Wildcats won five Pac-10 titles.
"The Bay Area was always my favorite road trip," he said.
A daughter, Jayda Evans, is a sportswriter with the Seattle Times.
Evans first had a four-year contract at Lafayette, then signed a new three-year deal. Negotiations were to begin on another contract. He leaves on good terms.
At Lafayette, an open-enrolment school, he sometimes signed players who were at-risk academically. This past fall semester there were questions about the academic qualifications of five players. Four of them eventually became eligible and played.
Mathews was fired after the Dons went 17-14 this past season. In nine years on the Hilltop, his teams went 139-123 and made one appearance in the NCAA Tournament. His record apparently fell short of goals for the program, which has a storied tradition.
The Dons have won three national titles -- the then-prestigious NIT in 1949 and the NCAA in '55 and '56. USF teams have made 15 trips to the NCAA Tournament.
The school dropped the sport in 1982 after a series of improprieties embarrassed the Jesuit administration. It was brought back in 1985.
Shortly after the firing, Hogan took note of the top-5 rankings of St. Joseph's and Gonzaga, also small Jesuit schools.
Hogan had offered the job to 67-year-old Gene Keady, but the six-time national coach of the year chose to return to Purdue for a 25th season.
Until the end, candidates still under consideration included Arizona assistant and former USF player Rodney Tention, recently fired Miami coach Perry Clark and former BYU coach Roger Reid.
King of the Hilltop?
Here is a look at Jessie Evans' numbers at Louisiana
Year W L
1997-98 18 13
1998-99 13 16
1999-00 25 9
2000-01 16 13
2001-02 20 11
2002-03 20 10
2003-04 20 9
Totals 132 81
Bruce Adams, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
E-mail Bruce Adams at badams@sfchronicle.com.
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