Wednesday, April 8, 1998
New Sun Devils coach doesn’t mind being the ‘bridesmaid’
BASEBALL: Rob Evans takes job after Majerus declines $1 million
deal
By Mel Reisner
The Associated Press
TEMPE, Ariz. — Rob Evans, who paid his dues during 24 years as
an assistant and then oversaw a huge turnaround at Mississippi, was
hired Tuesday as Arizona State’s basketball coach.
The selection was made a week after Utah’s Rick Majerus spurned
a $1 million a year offer to coach the Sun Devils. Athletic
director Kevin White then turned to the 51-year-old Evans.
"It doesn’t bother me" Evans said. "You know, consolation prize,
bridesmaid, whatever you want to call it. I’m here because I want
to be here."
White glossed over Evans’ status as second choice, talking about
his ability as a motivator, disciplinarian and courtside
strategist. Evans recruited White’s son, Michael, to play guard at
Ole Miss.
"The program has only been to three NCAA tournaments in its
lifetime," White said. "What you perhaps don’t know is that two
have come in the last two years, and both under coach Evans. Rob
Evans led Ole Miss to back-to-back 20-win seasons, the first time
that had occurred at Ole Miss since 1937-38.
"Ole Miss went 13-0 this year at home, they sold out every SEC
game, and that’s the first time that’s happened."
Evans will be paid about $450,000 this season. That’s what
Mississippi paid him, and three-quarters of what Bill Frieder was
making before he resigned last September in the face of a federal
point-shaving investigation involving two of his former
players.
Evans replaces Don Newman, who took over as interim coach after
Frieder’s resignation and led a team picked to finish last in the
Pac-10 to an 18-14 record that included road victories over
Cincinnati and Stanford.
It wasn’t enough for White, who was hoping Majerus’ reputation
would help fill the 14,000-seat University Activity Center where
attendance averaged 6,628 last season.
The Sun Devils, playing in a Phoenix suburb, compete for the
sports dollar with major league professional teams in baseball,
football, basketball, hockey and women’s basketball. Evans inherits
a depleted team that loses top scorer Jeremy Veal and has only five
returning upperclassmen on scholarship.
Bobby Lazor, who will play his senior season under his third
coach since transferring from Syracuse to get more playing time,
spent 45 minutes with Evans over the weekend.
"I think he’s a player’s coach just like coach Newman," Lazor
said. "He listens when you talk to him, and I think the
relationship will come very quickly because of his nature."
Three freshmen-to-be signed early, and Evans has five
scholarships that he could award in the spring signing period that
runs through May 15.
"We’ve got some talent; we just don’t have enough bodies. We’ve
got to hit the ground running," said Evans, who didn’t rule out
junior-college transfers as long as they fit the good-student,
good-citizen model he recruits.
But none of the problems ahead comes close to the overhaul he
accomplished at Ole Miss.
"All of my cohorts in the coaching profession told me it was a
basketball graveyard and not to accept the job," Evans said. "That
was a challenge for me, and that’s why I went there. That’s why
we’re here today, because we have a challenge ahead of us."
Evans was 44-65 his first four years at Mississippi, but the
1996-97 team was 20-9 and earned Evans the SEC coach of the year
award. This year, Mississippi improved to 22-7, winning its second
straight SEC West title and another NCAA berth.
Valparaiso upset Ole Miss 70-69 with a buzzer-beating shot in
the first round of the Midwest Regional last month. It was the
second straight first-round exit.
Evans, a native of Hobbs, N.M., played at Lubbock Christian and
New Mexico State, where he began coaching career in 1968. After
seven years as an assistant with the Aggies, he went to Texas Tech
for 15 years and then was an assistant to Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma
State for two seasons before taking over at Ole Miss in 1992.
AARON TOUT/Daily Bruin
Shortshop Chase Utley tries to beat the tag at first base.