Sometime on or around April 16, All-Delco guard Tyreke Evans from American Christian Academy will wait for the ESPN cameras to hum to life, clear his throat, pluck an officially licensed baseball cap from a backpack and announce where he will play college basketball.
Whatever happens then —- or so insist many around college basketball and recruiting and marketing and coaching —- Villanova cannot lose. Either Jay Wright will sign a consensus All-America guard who plays bigger than his 6-5 frame, or he will play the hand he has, a 22-win team that returns every regular from a Sweet 16 party.
While there could be some green-party candidates for Evans' many possible on-court services (Texas?), thinking people insist his choice will be either the Wildcats or Memphis. Either program would be wooing an athletic, long-armed, offensive-minded wing player capable of starting immediately at the one, two or three spot. It would also receive a player whose reputation out-glows his basketball polish —- the MVP of the McDonald's All-America game and a consensus All-Everywhere, albeit one whose outside shooting needs improvement and who displays selfish on-court tendencies.
There are 341 Division I teams. Exactly 341 of them would welcome a recruit of Evans' skill, Villanova naturally included. But not many have Wright's returning nucleus. That means few, if any, would be risking as much turbulence should Evans drag a blue-and-white cap with a capital "V" over his head when that signing-hour beauty show hits cable TV.
Three high school All-America guards are already playing for Villanova —- sophomores-to-be
Corey Stokes and
Corey Fisher, and
Scottie Reynolds, who will be a junior. The Cats lost in the NCAA Tournament to Kansas, a No. 1 seed that just blasted North Carolina in the Final Four and will play tonight for a national championship. To inject Evans successfully into the Villanova mix would be an achievement worthy of a chapter in any how-to coaching manual. But Wright did simultaneously use guards
Randy Foye, Allan Ray,
Kyle Lowry and
Mike Nardi en route to the Elite Eight. So it can be done.
The question, though, is this: Why the gamble?
Why add such a visible player —- one who has been permitted to shoot at will throughout an extended high school career, and one with a known demanding support group conditioned to expect movie-star treatment?
Under NCAA rules, Wright is prohibited from discussing any unsigned recruits and thus declined to be interviewed on the Evans issue. But this is why Villanova is recruiting Evans, according to various sources:
- He's good. He's very good. He's not
LeBron James or
Kobe Bryant good, but he is All-America good. "I know this," one recruiter with knowledge of Villanova said. "They really do like him. He's got long arms and can do so many things. There aren't many players like that. They have liked him for a long time. They really want him."
- There would be a buzz. "You sign Tyreke Evans, and now all of a sudden people are talking, 'Villanova, Villanova, Villanova,'" was the way another coach put it. "There is a value to that, alone. So the next time a player comes along with the reputation of being the best in the country, he is thinking, 'Well, the best players in the country go to Villanova.' That has to help down the line."
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Consider the added revenue streams. More Villanova merchandise would move. The added publicity almost surely would boost applications. Giddy alumni could go deep-wallet fishing for donations. More games could go to the Wachovia Center, where more (and higher priced?) tickets would be available.
Evans would mean attention for Villanova.
- The recruiting of Evans by 'Nova will apply another layer of salve to a burn that may never fully heal. Though it is history almost as ancient now as the Broad Street Bullies, Villanova did have a reputation a couple of decades ago of being indifferent to the finest Philadelphia-area talent.
Alvin Williams, Jason Lawson, Lowry,
Malik Allen,
Shane Clark and enough others have halted if not reversed that trend. But because of past sins, committed or implied, Villanova could not cover the P.R. cost of ignoring a player from its very county with Evans' skills and recruiting value.
"They could not afford to not recruit Tyreke Evans," one source said. "Not if they wanted to recruit a player like that out of Philly again —- and they will."
- Evans is a luxury —- a sport-recruiting expedition, even. One source said that if Villanova really needed a player at Evans' position to compete for a Big East championship, Wright would have had one (two?) signed in the early period last November. Typically, programs of Villanova's status are scouting high school sophomores by now, not waiting for a cockeyed, made-for-TV thumbs-up from a high school senior.
"Nothing to lose," is the way one coach put it.
If Evans picks Villanova, Villanova acquires a special player.
If he goes somewhere else, Villanova cashes in on its dedicated, in-town recruiting push and almost certainly wins another 20-plus with a Reynolds-Fisher-Stokes backcourt rotation.
So … what will happen?
The best sources have been insisting for weeks that Memphis is "a done deal." But word at the Final Four began to seep that Memphis coach John Calipari could be recruited himself —- to coach the
Chicago Bulls or the
New York Knicks. If so —- and if Evans truly wants to become a better overall player —- he could pick Villanova, where he has been attending games and playing pickup and organized basketball for six years.
The signing period starts April 16.
When it does, and however it ends, Villanova will add one more win to its 2008 record.
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