Nutt adds experience with new assistant

SEMO men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt was looking to add experience when he decided to revamp his staff in early April.

Experience is certainly what Nutt got when Jessie Evans joined the Redhawks as their top assistant.

The 62-year-old Evans is a former head coach of two Division I programs who also served as an assistant at several notable Division I programs, including Arizona, where he helped Lute Olson win the 1997 national title. Evans assisted Olson for nine years and was credited with recruiting some of Arizona's top players.

Evans, who played at Eastern Michigan from 1968 through 1972, is most well known for taking Louisiana-Lafayette to a pair of NCAA tournaments.

Evans won four regular-season conference championships and two conference tournament titles at Louisiana-Lafayette, which he led to a 132-81 record in seven seasons from 1997 through 2004. Louisiana-Lafayette won at least 20 games four times under Evans.

Evans did not experience similar success at San Francisco, where he went 45-57 in nearly four seasons from 2004 through 2007. He coached just 12 games during the 2007-08 campaign before reportedly being forced to take a leave of absence. He was eventually fired without coaching another game there.

Evans, whose overall head coaching record is 177-138, has also been an assistant at Minnesota, San Diego State, Texas and Wyoming in addition to Arizona.

Nutt is still in the market for a No. 3 assistant. Jamie Rosser, who has been with Nutt during his first three seasons at SEMO, remains on the staff.

Nutt had been short two assistants since he decided to not retain Kyle Gerdeman and Jeremy Case in early April. Both, like Rosser, had been with Nutt during his first three seasons at SEMO.