As a sophomore at Desert Vista high school, Ryan Evans was cut from the JV basketball team and was told he would never play college basketball.
He spent that year watching games from the stands and sat out a year before transferring to Hamilton high school. With a chip on his shoulder as a Husky, Evans really thrived and made a name for himself enough to receive division I basketball attention.
After spending four seasons with the University of Wisconsin where he never missed a game and set a Badger record 138 games played, Evans was given the opportunity to participate in his first pre-draft workout in his home town with the Phoenix Suns.
“It was good to be back home,” Evans said. “It was good to have the Suns with my first NBA workout. It felt good and I’m just glad for the opportunity.”
“I’ve got a lot of support here,” Evans added. “I would love to play for the Suns and I enjoyed getting out here.”
Evans showed his ability to play both on the outside as well as down low with Wisconsin. He was an above average rebounder for his size and had six career double-doubles. For him at these workouts, he is hoping to spotlight more his ability to play on the perimeter which will be more his position at the next level.
“I hope I showed them that I can play outside,” Evans mentioned. “I played inside a lot during my college career but naturally I’ve always been an outside player. So that’s what I wanted to audition out here.”
Next for Evans are workouts with Minnesota, Washington and Milwaukee leading up the the Draft where he hopes his NBA dreams become a reality.
Jared Cohen
