GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The one person, aside from Frank Martin, most responsible for South Carolina’s stunning swoop into the Final Four is a thousand-plus miles from Phoenix right now.
He watched the Gamecocks clinch a Final Four bid not inside Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but from the comfort of his living room. On Thursday, he spoke to CBS Sports before heading into the gym to help his 15-year-old son with workouts in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
His name is Lamont Evans, and at 39, he’s one of the most respected recruiters in the business. Evans is now the associate head coach at Oklahoma State; he left South Carolina in 2015 to join Brad Underwood’s staff in Stillwater. But had he not been on Frank Martin’s staff through the first four years of Martin’s tenure at South Carolina, it’s possible All-American Sindarius Thornwell would have gone to NC State instead of SC, and it’s highly likely McDonald’s All-American P.J. Dozier winds up in Louisville, not in Columbia.
“Lamont was so pivotal,” Gamecocks assistant Matt Figger told CBS Sports inside the team’s locker room Thursday. “Lamont was -- I’ve never seen a person work as hard to recruit one kid in P.J. Dozier as Lamont Evans did.”
Getting those two guys to South Carolina wound up making this Gamecocks dream march through March a reality. But Evans does not get to reap the rewards. That’s part of the business. Assistant coaches sometimes flock to different opportunities. Rare is the case, though, where an assistant will leave one school only to miss out the very next season on a Final Four.
“Not a bittersweet feeling,” Evans said. “But I’m extremely happy for all of those guys over there all the way down to the managers that I know that are still there and still doing it right. Everybody knows that situation over there is extremely hard work. That’s no cliche. People that have been around the program from day one.”
Evans grew up in Florida and knew Martin from his coaching days at Miami Senior High. That’s the connection. Evans first got a taste of the Big 12 life when Martin hired him as a student assistant, then promoted him to grad assistant when Martin was at Kansas State. Evans was lured back to the Big 12 because of it. Now South Carolina has made history, and Evans won’t even be able to make it out to Glendale to witness the Cinderella culmination in person.
“It wasn’t easy, definitely wasn’t easy,” Evans said of leaving South Carolina to join Underwood in Stillwater last season.
Dozier, who will have a shot at SEC Player of the Year next season, was the first McDonald’s All-American in a very long time to sign with South Carolina. And though Thornwell was growing into a very good player by the time Dozier joined, landing P.J. was the big moment before this: the biggest achievement in program history.
“PJ trusted Lamont,” Figger said. “I’ve been in this business 24 years. That was as good a job recruiting a kid as I have ever seen.”
He got it done by making early calls, checking in with P.J. before he went to class -- not after.
“You know how us coaches will make phone calls at night to kids,” said Figger, “Lamont does just the opposite. He calls kids before they go to school. And this kid always take his phone calls. PJ liked it that Lamont always calls him before he went to school. While everybody’s trying to get a hold of PJ after school, Lamont already got him in the morning.”
Evans now works under Mike Boynton, the newly anointed coach at Oklahoma State. Coincidentally, Boynton was a star at South Carolina and worked there before Martin and Evans got to Columbia. Boynton first saw Thornwell when Thornwell was in middle school. When Boynton left South Carolina, to eventually join Underwood’s staff at Stephen F. Austin, Evans took the baton and effectively got Thornwell to campus.
“He did the heavy lifting on Sindarius,” Figger said of Evans.
He and Martin sold Thornwell on being the program’s Jadeveon Clowney or Alshon Jeffery. The game-changing recruit.
“Sin’s an alpha male, and people are seeing that now,” Evans said. “He has a great pride about him. At the same time, Sin’s family was a big influence on him staying close to home. He bridged the gap and brought a bond with him and closeness to him.”
Dozier kept his recruitment close to his chest. Other guys, like Duane Notice and Hassani Gravett, chose South Carolina in good portion because of Evans too.
This week, Evans has been trading texts with the guys. He’s getting a faint taste of the Final Four dream. Who knows if and when he’ll get to experience it. That’s the toughest part, because NCAA Tournament wins, let alone trips to the ultimate stage in the sport, are guaranteed to no one. But Evans doesn’t sound like he has regrets, only happiness for what he helped construct.
“It’s not a whole book of messages,” Evans said. “I don’t want to distract them at all, but they were for me and hopefully I was there for them at their point of their lives. I’m proud of them. They knew my fight and how much I fought for them. We was tough on those guys, me especially. Whoo. There were days they didn’t have to worry about Frank.”
Evans now has a great contract, is making the most money he ever has, but he doesn’t get the experience. Would you trade one for the other? That’s the tough question. South Carolina might not be back in one for a hundred years. When will Oklahoma State get back? And so on Saturday night, in the comfort of his living room once again, Evans will be watching and rooting. It’s no longer his team, but those are still his guys.