THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 10, 1995 TAG: 9501100435
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Michael Evans, the much-traveled point guard from Booker T. Washington High, said Monday he is coming home to resume his college basketball career at Norfolk State.
Evans, a former high school All-American and one of the top high school players ever in South Hampton Roads, has enrolled in school and will be eligible to play next January, Norfolk State coach Mike Bernard said.
``Michael is in school and will have a Norfolk State uniform on in one year,'' Bernard said. ``I'm happy that he's come to school here.''
Evans has been at three different schools, but stayed at none of them longer than a year. He said a desire to be home drove his decision to attend Norfolk State.
``My family felt like it was best to stay here,'' Evans said. ``I'm always going to be happy at home.''
Rumors that Evans would attend Norfolk State have swirled around campus and in local basketball circles for at least two months. But Bernard and Evans declined to say anything publicly until Monday, which was the first day of registration for the second semester.
``In a way I knew I was coming, but I didn't want to say anything,'' Evans said.
By coming home, Evans is completing a circuitous journey that began after he graduated from Booker T. in 1992.
Evans, a 6-foot-2 ballhandling and passing whiz, was considered on par with players like Jason Kidd during his senior year, when he led the Bookers to the Group AAA state championship game.
Evans was recruited by Virginia and Old Dominion, among many others, but did not qualify academically under NCAA freshman eligibility guidelines and enrolled at Okaloosa-Walton Junior College in Niceville, Fla.
Evans spent the 1992-93 school year at Okaloosa-Walton - and averaged 21.6 points and 7.7 assists. He said he planned to return home to Old Dominion, but changed his mind and transferred to the University of New Orleans.
NCAA regulations required that Evans sit out a year at New Orleans before he would be eligible to play, but he left school after one semester, in December 1993.
Evans, tired of making headlines every time he changed schools, refused to say where he was headed. The next report was that he was living in New York City and attending a junior college but not playing basketball.
He came home last summer and played in the Hampton Roads Pro-Am Basketball League, where he showed flashes of his old brilliance.
But instead of returning to school, Evans stayed home last fall and worked out on his own. He has attended a couple of Norfolk State games and also attended games at the University of Maryland, according to sources at Maryland.
Evans said he didn't consider any school but Norfolk State, however.
By choosing Division II Norfolk State, Evans will have two years of eligibility left, while he would only have one remaining at a Division I school.
Because of the route he's taken, from New Orleans to a junior college to Norfolk State, Evans is a ``4-2-4'' transfer under NCAA guidelines. A ``4-2-4'' transfer must have completed his two-year degree to be eligible to play immediately at a four-year school. Because he has not completed a two-year degree, Evans must sit out a year.
Evans, however, will be able to practice with the team. If he stays eligible for the next two semesters, he'll be able to play next January.
``His eligibility is based on what he does next year,'' Bernard said.
Evans said he wasn't happy at the three schools he left, but he now says he's happy to be home and playing basketball again.
``It's good to be back on a team,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Michael Evans, an All-American at Booker T., will be eligible to
play next January for the Spartans.
by CNB