Lamont Evans: The Essentials

• Previous coaching stop: Kansas State, graduate assistant
• Career overview: Student manager (2008-09), graduate manager (2009-11)
• Playing experience: Drake University, 1999-2001
• Accolades: Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year (1999-00), All-MVC (1999-00)

The Breakdown

Entering his fourth year with the Kansas State program, Lamont Evans isn’t exactly a “new face” in Manhattan. The 2011-12 season marks his first, though, as a full-time assistant coach for Frank Martin. Normally, the promotion of a graduate manager to full-time assistant wouldn’t be especially noteworthy, but in this case, Evans has some large shoes to fill. He replaces one of the nation’s top recruiters in Dalonte Hill, who left for an assistant position at Maryland. At KSU, Hill was the highest-paid assistant in college basketball, pulling in more than $400,000 a year. And it’s not as if he didn’t earn that salary — Hill’s AAU ties landed Michael Beasley, Bill Walker, Jacob Pullen, Rodney McGruder and others.

Lamont Evans Landed a Promotion This Summer (photo by Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)

Evans may not recruit like Hill did, but he’s an all-around solid addition to Martin’s staff. He spent the past three seasons as both a student and graduate manager, earning his stripes at the bottom of the totem poll. He wasn’t your typical manager, however. Evans played two seasons as a junior college transfer at Drake from 1999 to 2001, even earning Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year honors during the 1999-00 season. He played professionally in Europe and South America, but he went back to school to get a bachelor’s at KSU in 2009. That’s when he joined Martin’s staff, and ever since, he’s ascended up the ranks.

Martin will certainly miss Hill– and, probably more notably, Hill’s AAU connections. But given time, Evans has a strong enough basketball background to grow into a valuable assistant. Plus, he’s only 33 years old, so there is a lot of room for him to grow.

What They’re Saying

“Lamont has really earned this opportunity… He has really earned everyone’s trust, including most importantly, the players. He has a great basketball mind and an engaging personality.”

–Kansas State coach Frank Martin

dnspewak (343 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 3:30 pm by dnspewak and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: bill walker, dalonte hill, drake, frank martin, jacob pullen, kansas state, lamont evans, maryland, michael beasley, missouri valley conference, rodney mcgruder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.