Check out Tyreke’s latest diary for Phillyhoops.net

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The projections – some of them, at least – say he’ll be a lottery pick if he leaves school early, a 19-year-old millionaire the moment commissioner David Stern summons him to the stage during this summer’s NBA draft.
For Memphis freshman Tyreke Evans, the decision whether to remain in college or turn pro seems automatic – especially considering he’ll get no resistance from his head coach.
“Without question,” Memphis’ John Calipari says, “if Tyreke has the opportunity to leave, I’ll tell him, ‘You’ve got to go.’ ”
Calipari has done it before with freshmen such as Derrick Rose and DaJuan Wagner – and he’ll likely do it again next season with the one-and-done prospects from a 2009 recruiting class that some analysts are already hailing as the best in college basketball history.
More and more these days, Memphis is becoming the country’s most popular pit-stop to the NBA.
“There’s a proven track record here,” Calipari says. “When you’re ready to take that next step, we won’t hold you back.”

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Tyreke Evans was the #1 ranked HS player in the country last season and last year was the winner of the Triple Crown (MVP of the the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game, the McDonald’s All American Game & the Jordan Brand Classic Game). Tyreke is considered to be a lottery pick in this year’s 2009 NBA DRAFT and will be contributing to Philly Hoops monthly.

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Brian McCormick recently posted about the upcoming NBA Draft. He discusses Tyreke’s potential as a top pick. Read the full post here.

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ST. LOUIS, Mo. - University of Memphis’ Tyreke Evans has been named one of 15 finalists for the U.S. Basketball Writers of America’s (USBWA) National Player of the Year award, the organization announced Thursday. The USBWA Player of the Year is the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Evans is the only freshman among the Robertson Trophy finalists.

This is the second-straight year and the third time in the last four seasons that a Tiger player is a finalist for the Robertson Trophy. Chris Douglas-Roberts was a finalist in 2007-08, while Rodney Carney was a finalist for the honor in 2005-06.

Evans, an eight-time Conference USA Rookie of the Week recipient, leads the Tigers in scoring with a 17.1 average. He is also averaging 5.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals. Evans is second on the team in assists and leads the squad in steals. The Chester, Pa., native is shooting 45.8 percent from the field, 31.9 percent from the arc and 70.5 percent from the free throw line. He is ranked among the Conference USA leaders in scoring (7th), rebounding (18th), field goal percentage (9th), assists (11th) and steals (2nd).

In mid-January, Evans was named to collegehoops.net Mid-Season All-Freshman first team.

Joining Evans as finalists for the Robertson Trophy are: Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair, Kansas’ Sherron Collins, Villanova’s Dante Cunningham, Davidson’s Stephen Curry, Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin, North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson, Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody, Arizona State’s James Harden, Marquette’s Jerel McNeal, Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks, Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet, Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague and Ohio State’s Evan Turner.

The Robertson Trophy is voted on by the entire membership of the USBWA, which consists of nearly 800 journalists. The ballot will be distributed to the membership on Mar. 2. The presentation of this year’s award will take place on Apr. 3 at the USBWA’s annual awards breakfast at the downtown Detroit Athletic Club in conjunction with the NCAA Men’s Final Four.

The Robertson Trophy is the nation’s oldest award and the only one named after a former player. The legendary Oscar Robertson was the USBWA’s first player of the year in 1959. The USBWA renamed its Player of the Year award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 1998.

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Check out Tyreke’s latest diary entry for Philly Hoops. He talks about his experiences as a Tiger.

Posted under Miscellaneous, Tigers Hoops

Check out Tyreke’s diary on Philly Hoops!

Posted under Miscellaneous

 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -When Memphis coach John Calipari watches his team play Tennessee, he sees more than just a basketball game.”What I told the guys was it was going to be war,” he said. “I watched the tape from last year, and it was a war. It was not basketball, it was hand-to-hand combat.”

Tyreke Evans scored 17 points, including a free throw with one second remaining, helping the No. 22 Tigers to a 54-52 victory over the in-state rival Vols on Saturday. It was Memphis’ 10th straight win.

The Tigers avenged last season’s loss to Tennessee, when the two teams met as No. 1 vs. No. 2. The underdog Vols won 66-62 in that one, handing Memphis its only loss of the regular season and knocking it from the top of the poll.

Evans scored Memphis‘ final seven points, making a layup with 2:53 remaining to give the Tigers (16-3) a 53-50 lead.

He was a high school senior for last year’s historic game, but Calipari made it very clear to him how important it was to win.

“It’s a rivalry game and (Calipari) and their coach don’t get along,” Evans said. “I could see it in his face how bad he wanted to win. I think he’s probably happier than us.”

Wayne Chism, who scored Tennessee’s last 11 points, made two free throws with 2:34 left to cut Memphis‘ lead to 53-52.

Both teams would go the next 2 minutes without scoring.

Evans missed a short jumper with 34 seconds left, and Bobby Maze grabbed the rebound for Tennessee (12-6). After a timeout, Tyler Smith, who scored the winning shot in last year’s game, missed an off-balance jumper with about 5 seconds left.

“I was trying to make some contact. I thought I did, but at the same time, I’ve got to make that shot,” Smith said.

After Evans missed the back end a 1-and-1, Chism grabbed the rebound and called a timeout with one second left. All the Vols could manage was a midcourt shot by Josh Tabb that fell short.

Antonio Anderson and Doneal Mack both had 10 points for the Tigers, while Shawn Taggart grabbed nine rebounds.

Chism led the Vols with 15 points, while Smith had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and J.P. Prince had 10 points.

It was a game of runs, with eight lead changes and seven ties. Tennessee grabbed its largest lead on a tip-in by Smith with 8:43 left in the first half to make it 19-14.

After being down by a point at halftime, Memphis slowly pulled away with the help of free throws by Taggart and a 3-point play by Evans.

The Tigers grabbed a 42-34 lead on a layup by Evans with 15:41 left.

Chism found his shot with a layup with 9:59 left and scored the next nine points to keep the Tigers within reach.

Memphis has used its stingy defense to hold opponents to 37.1 percent from the floor this season, and Tennessee could manage only 32.7 percent. The Tigers shut down the Vols’ perimeter game, holding them to only two 3-point baskets.

“Our opponents will continue to collapse on us, and until we make some jump shots it will continue to happen,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said.

The Tigers only shot 33.9 percent against a Vols defense that has struggled all season.

Before Saturday, Tennessee had won the last two and seven of the last nine meetings with Memphis. All but five of the teams’ all-time meetings have been decided by 10 points or fewer.

“We came out with the victory. Losing three in a row would have killed me,” Anderson said.

Tennessee has lost only two non-conference home games under Pearl in 30 tries. The first came Jan. 7 in a 89-79 overtime loss to Gonzaga.

“This game is a resume-building opportunity loss for us,” Pearl said. Memphis is a very good team, as was Gonzaga, and those were both resume-building opportunities.”

Posted under Stories, Tigers Hoops

Tyreke Evans had 27 points and seven steals, both career highs, to lead Memphis to an 80-48 victory over Northeastern on Wednesday.

The freshman guard connected on 9 of 13 shots, including 4 of 5 from outside the 3-point arc as Memphis won its third straight. Robert Dozier added 16 points, making all 10 of his free throws, and Antonio Anderson scored 11 for Memphis.

The Tigers (9-3) pulled away at the end of the first half and were never threatened the rest of the way.

Manny Adako led Northeastern (6-5), hitting all seven of his shots in the game. Matt Janning, the Huskies’ leading scorer, was limited to six points, going 2-for-12 from the field. Janning missed all four of his 3-point shot attempts.

The Huskies, coming off a 55-42 win at Indiana on Monday, held an early lead, but struggled after the midway point of the first half.

Posted under Stories, Tigers Hoops

By Kevin Tatum
Inquirer Staff Writer

Tyreke Evans left home to play college basketball and certainly took his jump shot with him.
Memphis played for the NCAA title last season, but this season, the Chester native is the Tigers’ leading scorer.

Evans, a freshman guard, was averaging 16.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.6 steals going into Memphis’ game against Syracuse today. Evans and the Tigers will play Drexel on Monday in Memphis.

But Evans also took with him a sense that it was time to grow up.

“Leaving home is big,” Evans said in a recent interview. “Time to man up, being in college and doing what you have to do. It’s like I thought it would be, and I like it better than high school. You’re more on your own.”

Though hindered by ankle and foot injuries, the 6-foot-6 Evans has played well enough to be the Conference-USA co-rookie of the week three times this fall. Memphis is 6-2. Evans’ season high is the 29 points he delivered on Dec. 2 in a 100-61 rout of Marist, and he has also had two 19-point outings.

Memphis returned eight letter-winners from last year’s squad, which won 38 games, an NCAA record, before falling to Kansas in the title game. Among the missing is guard Derrick Rose, who was taken by the Chicago Bulls with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft after averaging 14.9 points and 4.5 rebounds as a freshman.

“I’m going to stay for as many years as I need to,” Evans said of his future.

For a while in late 2007, Evans had more pressing concerns. His cousin was charged with first- and third-degree murder after allegedly shooting a person on the street while riding in an SUV Evans was driving. Evans was not charged in the incident, which occurred on Nov. 25, 2007.

Evans was in the midst of his last season playing at American Christian Academy. Memphis coach John Calipari did not back off recruiting Evans because of the circumstances.

“This kid is so different from the perception about him out there in the public realm,” Calipari said. “He is very coachable, and wants to be coached. It’s important that he wants to learn because I’ve been around some players in the past that didn’t want to be coached. First, Tyreke is an unbelievable kid, and second, he is a tremendous talent.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright, who became familiar with Evans and his family when the player was in the ninth grade, said he had bittersweet feelings about not landing Evans.

“As much as we would have loved to have had him here, we just feel good that he has found a place that can help him achieve his dreams,” Wright said. “His family was very forthright and honest with us every step of the way. He’s a great kid and an extremely gifted basketball player.”

In high school, Evans averaged 32.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 4.3 steals. He has all the attributes - he can create off the dribble, finish, and shoot with range - and Calipari can’t wait until Evans’ physical gifts begin to pay dividends at the defensive end of the court.

“When he learns what he’s capable of defensively, you are going to sit back and say, ‘Wow!’ ” Calipari said.

“It’s a long season and I’m just trying to get better,” Evans said. “Guys are bigger and stronger, and it’s a totally different game. I’m working in the weight room because it’s a physical game. That’s more of a factor than in high school.”

As for living in Memphis, Evans has only one minor concern.

“Memphis is a little slower than back home, but people treat me good,” he said, “I do miss the cheesesteaks. They have a couple of spots here, but they’re not like at home.”

Posted under Stories