USF finds the man it wants
Evans to be Dons' coach

Bruce Adams, Chronicle Staff Writer


Jessie Evans, following a successful seven-year stint at Louisiana-Lafayette, 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.

<a href='http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/21/USF.TMP' target='_blank'>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...4/04/21/USF.TMP</a>

Coach Evans reportedly meet with UL officials today and later departed Lafayette for San Francisco, we can assume he is not going out there to turn them down. Some of the coaches reported to be interested in the Cajuns head coaching position are current LSU (and former Cajun) assistant Butch Pierre, former LSU and Cajun assistant and Nicholls State head coach Rickey Broussard, current UNT head coach and former LSU assistant Johnnie Jones, current McNeese St and former UNO and Memphis head coach Tic Price, former Washington State head coach ???? (I cannot recall his name), and current UL assistant coach Robert Lee.

He did say if another offer came up he would take it, so it's safe to assume he's jetting out of here.