Trevon Evans leaves Southwestern, heads back to junior college

Two months ago, Trevon Evans was at peace with his decision.

The dynamic 6-foot guard and Eisenhower product was at peace with playing the final three seasons of his college basketball career at Southwestern, an NAIA school.

But things change. Opinions change. And several weeks ago, Evans went to Southwestern coach Matt O’Brien and told him he was likely going back to junior college to try and pick up an NCAA Division I offer.

Thursday, O’Brien finally got word it was a done deal and Evans had committed to play for Dodge City Community College. It capped a crazy year for Evans that started with microfracture knee surgery, saw him leave Pratt Community College, sign with Southwestern, stir up a ton of buzz with the Moundbuilders’ fan base … then leave.

Evans said his mind began to change while he was watching the NCAA Tournament last month, and began to feel he could play Division I.

“It was never my plan to come (to Southwestern) and go back to juco,” Evans said. “I apologize to the coaches, and I feel bad that I wasted their time if that’s how they look at it. Things change, my mindset changed and after talking to my parents and my friends and the people close to me, I believed this was the best thing for me to do.”

Evans had three Division I offers after he averaged 23.4 points over his last two seasons at Eisenhower — from Weber State, where Southeast star Jerrick Harding signed this week, Northern Colorado and Texas-Pan American. He spurned those schools to play for Pratt Community College to try and secure an offer from a bigger school.

Things didn’t work out exactly as planned – Evans averaged a respectable 7.1 points and 3.7 assists as a freshman at Pratt in 2014-15. Evans said offseason microfracture surgery on his right knee sidelined him for this past season, and in December he decided to sign with Southwestern.

He practiced with the team through the winter, and several Twitter videos showing Evans pulling off highlight-reel dunks seemed proof the knee had healed.

“He’s a great kid, there weren’t any problems while he was here, and it seemed like the way we played was a perfect fit for him,” O’Brien said. “It wasn’t like we got him all hyped up and signed him, because it was a pretty well thought-out process. He visited campus twice. He came to a couple of games. We thought he was here to stay and we had something to build on. I don’t know what the problem was.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Trevon Evans leaves Southwestern, heads back to junior college."