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Basketball star Tyree Evans is attending classes at Kent State
By Jonas Fortune
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Wednesday, Oct 22, 2008
KENT: Tyree Evans always has been able to perform on the basketball court.
His accomplishments have been mentioned with the likes of Allen Iverson and Moses Malone in Virginia high school lore.
But numerous off-court issues, including felony arrests, left Evans bouncing from program to program, and even in jail for two weeks.
He tried to attend the University of Cincinnati twice. Kansas State said he wasn't a good fit for its program. Maryland accepted him, but a rift between the athletic director and coach pushed Evans into withdrawing his application.
He spent time at two junior colleges and was dismissed from one of them.
Now, Evans joins the Kent State basketball team as a 23-year-old walk-on guard with two years of eligibility remaining.
The inherent risk Kent State knowingly is taking is an attempt to give Evans a chance to repair his image and to improve the Golden Flashes' overall program.
''Did we do our due diligence in background and all that sort of stuff? Absolutely,'' first-year coach Geno Ford said in a recent interview. ''All he wants to do is be a good basketball player and get a degree. . . . It is not something I stay up at night panicking about, I can assure you that.''
Evans was one of the better players coming out of high school in 2004. At the time, Virginiapreps.com ranked him higher than Rajon Rondo, who now is the starting point guard for
the NBA champion Boston Celtics.
He capped his senior season at George Wythe High in Richmond by trailing only NBA legends Iverson and Malone in points scored in a Virginia high school season. His 884 points that year left him with 2,251 for his career.
Jerry Meyer, the national college basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said Evans' on-court abilities haven't changed much.
''He's an exceptional talent — a big-time scorer who can put the ball in the basket,'' Meyer said.
Evans, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound shooting guard, is a legitimate impact player at any level in college basketball, Meyer said.
Since ending his prep career, however, Evans has been arrested on a charge of statutory rape in Massachusetts and felony charges of marijuana possession with intent to distribute in Virginia and drug possession in Maryland. Evans also had a trespassing arrest in his native Richmond.
The statutory rape charge eventually was reduced when Evans pleaded guilty to assault and battery on a female who was, according to court records at least age 14, but not yet 16.
On the charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 12 months in prison with 11 months suspended. He served two weeks in Richmond City Jail.
Ford said he is not concerned about Evans' character or the potential risk involved.
''No, because I know him,'' Ford said. ''If you spend some time with him, he is probably our most mature guy. He is 23 years old. When you have a conversation with him, it is like talking to a grad student, basically, to be honest. He is early to his classes. He's been great.''
Kent State's director of athletics, Laing Kennedy, said that Evans' transgressions happened when ''he was basically in high school.''
His last known arrest occurred in 2006 — at age 21.
Evans has matured, Kennedy said, going as far as to call him a ''model citizen'' and a ''fine young man'' since enrolling at KSU.
Kennedy has found some success in allowing players who could be considered high risks to join the Flashes' athletic programs.
Football player Abram Elam was dismissed from Notre Dame after charges of sexual assault. After being convicted of sexual battery, Elam eventually landed at Kent State. He had no reported problems as a member of the Flashes and is now in the NFL with the New York Jets.
On the other hand, last year's attempt to bring on former Purdue point guard Korey Spates, who was dismissed by the Boilermakers for ''conduct detrimental to the team'' in 2005-2006, never lasted into the school year.
KSU pulled his scholarship — a grant that went to guard Al Fisher — at the last minute.
Each recruit is screened on a case-by-case basis, Kennedy said.
''Certainly you have to look into it,'' Ford said of a player's past. ''You do your homework on it to see what the facts really are and what really went down and what really happened.
''Once you do that, you spend time with the kid and [ask], 'Is this a kid that we feel like will come here and go to class and be a good teammate?' And if you think that he will go to class and be a good teammate and be a good citizen, then it's not a problem.''
Kennedy, who did not interview Evans before his registration at Kent State, said Evans is not a risk because he is a walk-on player. The Flashes had no available scholarships.
''He is coming in and paying his own way. He is a free person,'' Kennedy said. ''He has that opportunity to [come to Kent State], and he is going to try out for a team. He has that opportunity as a student at Kent State.''
The Kent State Sports Communications department declined numerous requests to interview Evans for this story, as well as a request to interview first-year KSU assistant Bobby Steinburg, who coached Evans last season at Motlow (Tenn.) Community College.
''At this particular time, until [Evans] becomes an official member of our team, we cannot do that,'' Kennedy said earlier this month.
At that time, the school's official athletic Web site, KentStateSports.com, listed Evans on the roster. He was visible in the team photo and had his own player profile page with a picture of him in a Kent State uniform.
On Tuesday, Evans still was on the roster and in the team photo, but the link to his personal profile page had been disabled.
Kennedy said he was not sure when Evans would be available to the media, but the athletic communications department initially said he would be available for interviews Oct. 17, the first day of practice, when he ''officially'' is on the roster.
The Beacon Journal contacted athletic communications again Monday to request an interview with Evans and was denied.
When reached via cell phone earlier this month, Evans said he ''could not talk right now.''
It is against Kent State Athletic Department policy for reporters to call student-athletes directly. In order to preserve privacy, student-athletes are instructed to direct all unauthorized phone calls to the sports information department, Sports Information Director Alan Ashby said.
On Oct. 2, the athletic department issued a statement from Evans via e-mail. ''I am excited about the opportunity to play for Kent State, and I am taking it very seriously. Right now I am focused on my classes and preparing for the upcoming season. I hope to move forward and begin the next chapter in my life.''
Meyer, who was not familiar with all of the details of Evans' arrests, said college basketball in general works on what he calls a ''sliding scale'': The more talented you are, the more mistakes you are able to make, he said.
''If you're talented enough, you have to do a whole lot of things wrong to not get a chance,'' Meyer said.
Evans isn't the first athlete to be given another chance, Ford said, and he is no more of a risk than any other student-athlete.
''This was not his only option,'' Ford said. ''He had places that were still at the highest level in the Big 12 offering scholarships in August. And he decided to come here because he wanted to be a part of Kent State, and he wanted to be with coach Steinburg and [teammate Frank Henry-Ala], who is a close friend.''
Henry-Ala played with Evans last year at Motlow.
''There are students at Kent State who have had previous problems before coming to Kent State — students in general,'' Kennedy said. ''So, I feel very confident in Tyree and that he will have every opportunity to be successful and he will have every opportunity to be in the context of a student-athlete at Kent State and will be under the guidelines and code of expected behavior.''
Richmond Times Dispatch reporter Darryl Slater, who spent two days with Evans last season in Tennessee, sees a player who is ready to show everyone what he can do at the Division I level.
''I think he is just craving a stage where he can be noticed and show off the one thing that he can get right, which is basketball,'' Slater said.
Jonas Fortune can be reached at jfortune@thebeaconjournal.com.
KENT: Tyree Evans always has been able to perform on the basketball court.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 12:46 AM, 10/25/2008
Jonas - thanks for keeping us posted. Great info in this article and the other you did w/ the timeline.
