Oklahoma State Lands Point Guard Jawun Evans

Name: Jawun Evans

School: Oklahoma State

Location: Dallas, TX via Greenville, SC

Height: 6’0”

Position: Point Guard

Rank: #24 - Scout, #26 – Rivals, #36 - ESPN

Five-star point guard Jawun Evans committed to Oklahoma State over Illinois and USC just days after taking an official visit to the OSU campus. The 6’0” Evans is one of the top point guards in the country, and arguably the quickest from end to end. 

Going back to the summer before Evans’ junior year he was locally recruited by schools in his home state including South Carolina, Clemson, and College of Charleston. As a fringe Top 50 player, Brad Brownell and his Clemson staff followed Evans around for most of the summer bringing three coaches too many of his games. After a strong summer on the AAU circuit for the 17U SC Raptors Elite team, Evans moved to Texas and played his junior year in Dallas, TX. With the move, Evans began to attract new suitors and soon sky rocketed up the rankings with his play.

This past summer Evans played on the Nike AAU circuit with Team Texas Elite and also sporadically with his former SC Raptors AAU squad on the Under Armour circuit. During his first year in the EYBL, Evans averaged 14.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game while playing with sharp shooters Matt McQuaid (Michigan State) and Austin Grandstaff (Ohio State) in addition to big man Elijah Thomas.

After taking an official visit to Stillwater this past weekend, Evans finalized his decision to play for Travis Ford in the 2015-16 season. The commitment gives the Cowboys their first pick-up from the 2015 high school class as they previously received a pledge from Igor Ibaka, a junior college power forward from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. While the Evans’ commitment is huge for Travis Ford in terms of getting a talented playmaker, it could also wind up being huge in another one of the Cowboys top targets. As mentioned above, Evans played on the same AAU team as 6’9” Elijah Thomas, who is currently ranked No. 30 in the country. Both Evans and Thomas have talked about teaming up in the future and Oklahoma State is one of the primary schools in contention for Thomas.

When Evans arrives at Oklahoma State he should start immediately. He already possesses college level speed and quickness which allows him to penetrate almost at will on offense. He can single handedly break the press and always has his head up looking for teammates. Evans is athletic enough to finish at the rim, but can also stop and pop for a 15 foot pull-up or a floater in the paint. On the defensive side, Evans uses his quick feet to harass opposing point guards away from the basket and is strong enough in the upper body so that guards cannot easily post him up. Going forward Evans will need to continue to work on his three point shot so that slower defenders are not able to sag off of him in half-court and pick and roll situations. He shot just 8-24 from the three point line in AAU play, but given his propensity to hit jumpers inside the paint this should be an area he can easily improve.