Jessie Evans at UCF
Seeking a return to glory
USF hopes to be a player with new coach
Jessie Evans isn't happy with the photographs of basketball players lining the hallway outside his new office at War Memorial Gym.
He doesn't have anything against the recent-vintage players in the photos. It's just that he has a better idea.
"We need some of the old guys up here," he said. "Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Phil Smith."
USF's new men's coach has a vision for the future, and it begins with a longing gaze at the program's storied past.
"All the things that were there then are here now," he said. "We just have to be committed to let the public know that we're going to do it the right way."
Evans comes to the Hilltop with a coaching style that took root in a Midwestern basketball mecca, was cultivated in the Arizona desert and blossomed in the heart of Cajun country.
He was hired April 22 to lead the Dons back to prominence. He replaces Phil Mathews, who was fired March 8 after nine years at USF, an overall record of 139-123 and only one trip to the NCAA Tournament.
That wasn't good enough for an administration also looking longingly to the glory days and envious of the recent success of other small Jesuit schools, such as St. Joseph's, Xavier and West Coast Conference rival Gonzaga.
USF won three national championships, was a regular postseason participant and routinely ranked in the Top 20 until 1982, when embarrassed USF leaders voluntarily dropped an increasingly out-of-control program. The school brought the sport back in 1985 -- initially with modest goals.
Now the administration wants 20-win seasons and postseason play to become the norm once again.
Evans, 51, spent the last seven years at Louisiana-Lafayette enjoying that kind of success. His teams won at least 20 games four times, had just one losing season, were 132-81 overall and made four postseason appearances. Evans became known as an outstanding recruiter whose teams played a full-court, up-tempo game.
"He's going to coach, he's going to recruit and he's going to put them in a position to win championships," said John Pelphrey, coach at South Alabama and a former opponent of Evans in the Sun Belt Conference. "Coach Evans can certainly build that program."
Since arriving in San Francisco, Evans hasn't just been fussing over the pictures in the hall. He's been recruiting, getting to know his new players and meeting boosters and faculty.
He recently flew back to Lafayette, where he attended the graduation of Khadim Kandji, a graduate assistant for the Ragin' Cajuns last season and a junior college transfer who played two years for Evans. It was the final chapter in a tenure that included criticism of Evans for bringing in players with marginal academic credentials.
In fact, 10 of his four-year players graduated. In the seven years before his arrival, the school graduated only one four-year player. Of the three seniors on this year's team, one will graduate this summer and a second is on course to graduate after the fall semester next year.
The rest of the story
San Francisco Chronicle
Bruce Adams,
badams@sfchronicle.com
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