Trouble with a capital 'Tyree?'

Mike Burke
Cumberland Times-News

May 09, 2008 12:31 pm

— Tyree Evans is a 6-foot-3 dead-eye shooting guard who made 44 percent of his three-point attempts on his way to scoring 21 points a game last season at Motlow State (Tenn.) Community College. It doesn't matter if you're playing NBA, major college, junior college, high school, rec league or church league: You hit 44 percent of your three-point shots and you, my friend, are a big-time shooter.
Evans, in fact, is so big-time that if Gary Williams has his way, you'll see the young man lighting it up for the University of Maryland Terrapins the next two years. Goodness knows, the Terps need a shooter/scorer. What the university is wondering, does the university community need this particular shooter/scorer?
If you've been following the blogs the past month or so, you know that Evans is 23 years-old with a history of legal troubles. A big-time recruit growing up, Evans had the attention of everybody in college basketball, but jumped from high school to prep school and has attended two different junior colleges.
After his big year at Motlow he received chance No. 5 from Williams, who offered him a scholarship to Maryland. Evans accepted, verbally committed, and believed he had already been admitted, with plans to enroll in the summer term at Maryland. But Evans was not admitted and can't be until a disciplinary office reviews his criminal misdemeanors and makes a recommendation to the admissions office, which is the process for any potential student at Maryland, whether he can hit the three or not.
A native of Richmond, Evans produced the third-highest scoring output for a single season in Virginia scholastic basketball history, with his 884 points trailing the marks set by a couple of guys named Allen Iverson and Moses Malone, another prep hoopster who committed to Maryland a little while back.
From the time he was in Richmond, however, to the time he and Williams found each other, Evans has found trouble. Last year he was charged with felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He ended up pleading to a misdemeanor marijuana charge and was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all but one month being suspended contingent on good behavior and community service.
In 2006, Evans pleaded guilty to a reduced assault-related misdemeanor after being accused with others of statutory rape of a 15-year-old classmate at The Winchendon School, a Massachusetts prep school in 2004. Evans told the Baltimore Sun, "I didn't even touch her."
A locker-room brawl between Evans and a teammate at Motlow was overblown, according to head coach Bobby Steinburg, who was quoted in Thursday's Sun as saying, "That stuff happens. I've never been a part of a team where there hasn't been some skirmishes."
In a Maryland press release dated April 16, Williams announced Evans had signed a National Letter of Intent with the Terps, but the university recently said, "Not so fast." Athletic director Debbie Yow says she didn't know Maryland was recruiting Evans, and only after he verbally committed was she informed of the misdemeanor convictions. She went on to tell the Sun in a written response to queries that Williams has a strong desire to have Evans admitted to Maryland, and this is something Williams says, too.
So there we are, and here we go. You can read Yow's response a couple of different ways, one being she's putting Gary Williams out there all by his lonesome since the relationship the two have shared through the years has reportedly been ... shall we say, a tad frosty? And, oh, did you hear Maryland has missed the NCAA tournament three of the past four years?
In any event, Williams wants Evans, just as former Cincinnati coach Bobby Huggins wanted Evans. Huggins, in fact, believed he had Evans, but pulled out of the recruitment after the prep school case broke. So now, you're saying, Maryland wants a kid that Bobby Huggins backed off from for legal reasons? What gives?
"What gives?" is a legitimate question to ask because Maryland, during Williams' long and successful tenure at his alma mater, has never gone near these waters. Williams has generally recruited the non-McDonald's kid and won a national championship with a teamload of them. Conversely, the university in the past would not even admit players such as Lawrence Moten and Donyell Marshall for academic reasons, two pretty good players who ended up going to two pretty good academic schools in Syracuse and Connecticut.
Williams believes Evans has grown, matured and learned from his past, which hopefully is true since he is now 23 years of age. And let's not be naive here. Williams believes Evans can help the Terps win basketball games. So does he deserve a second chance, or, in this case, a fifth chance?
Players with questionable backgrounds have gotten chances in college basketball since the beginning of time. Without mentioning their alleged transgressions or academic shortcomings, Billy Edelin went to Syracuse; Shelden Williams and Corey Maggette went to Duke; and just down the road from College Park, there have been Georgetown Hoyas by the names of Michael Graham, John Turner, Victor Page and Allen Iverson.
So just because some schools do it makes it all right for Maryland to do it? That's why disciplinary office reviews are part of the admissions process. Whether it's right or wrong will always be for anybody to say. Whether it's going to happen will be decided by the Maryland administration.
What is just as striking in all of this, if not more so, is the way lines appear to have been drawn in the sand. Williams seems adamant on putting his spotless reputation on the line for the sake of getting Evans admitted, whereas Yow has seemingly moved herself as far away from Williams' line in the sand as she possibly can.
Gary Williams doesn't believe this is a huge risk, but he seems to be the only other person out there who feels this way. This is a huge risk, and it's a risk nearly everybody in the country but Williams has taken before, at one time or another.
So now that he is taking it, even though he says he's not, shouldn't all he's done for the University of Maryland - you know, like bringing the men'$ ba$ketball program back from the aby$$ - be considered?
Yes, it should be. But know these are some dicey times in College Park. And, coupled with the Maryland men's basketball team's poor showing in the NCAA's Academic Progress Report, they could end up being much dicier than anybody in College Park would like to see.
Or, maybe not.
Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.

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