Coach ( 1998-2004 ) Jessie Evans

[Turbine]

Head coach Jessie Evans has a national championship ring from Arizona, where he coached under Lute Olson for nine years and recruiting some of its best players.

Coach Evans came to Louisiana on the heels of the 1997 title run.

He has led the Cajuns to post season play in 2 of the last three years.

In 2001-02 Louisiana head basketball coach Jessie Evans was a member of the board of Coaches who voted in the NCAA ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. It is made up of 30 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

He is considered Sun Belt’s Best-Dressed head coach with his Armani and Canali suits. He credits his time with Lute Olson as his groundwork of elegance.

We like his ground work for excellence.

[NewsCopy]

Four straight winning seasons, consecutive postseason berths and back-to-back 20-win seasons.

One would think that Louisiana head coach Jessie Evans is content with the success of his program over the past four seasons.

That assumption could be assumed true when looking at the won-loss column.

But Evans would tell you that there’s one piece missing – a return trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Evans guided the Cajuns to the Big Dance in 2000 and has been at the doorstep of breaking in the past two seasons only to come just a few steps short.

His team has the postseason experience (back-to-back NIT berths) and returns a solid group of seven experienced players who could combine with a group of talented newcomers to put the Cajuns basketball program back on the national scene come March 2004.

Evans certainly knows the way to the NCAA Tournament, a tradition that has marked his 26-year coaching career wherever he has served.

He helped bring Arizona a national championship in 1997 and was an assistant with the Wildacts for nine straight NCAA Tournament berths. Overall in his career, he has been a part of 539 wins to just 260 losses.

Now, the seventh-year head coach looks to lead a squad that is full of talent, even more than last season’s 20-10 finish, to college basketball’s highest stage and hopefully make some noise and continue to take the Cajuns program to another level.

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