Despite a disappointing ender to their 2024-2025 season, the North Carolina Tar Heels carried one of college basketball’s deeper backcourts.
UNC rotated between Elliiot Cadeau, Ian Jackson and Seth Trimble in its starting lineup. Cadeau and Jackson are now gone, leaving North Carolina with Trimble as its lone backcourt returner.
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Needing a point guard for their upcoming season, the Tar Heels landed Colorado State transfer Kyan Evans. During his press conference Tuesday afternoon, UNC head coach Hubert Davis praised Evans’ skillset – and what he brings to Chapel Hill.
“The versatility, just his ability to be able to make plays, whether it’s with the ball in his hand, coming off ball screens or off the ball actions, whether it’s flares or staggers or wide pins,” Davis said. “Just his versatility on the offensive end, being able to do that. He’s an excellent defensive player. Him coming here not only brings a high level of skill from a basketball standpoint, but also experience. That’s something that we were looking for.”
North Carolina wasn’t a great perimeter shooting team last season, finishing 87th in the nation with a 35.6 percent mark.
Evans is an immediate upgrade to that percentage: during CSU’s 26-win campaign, which resulted in an NCAA Tournament Round of 32 appearance, Evans shot 44.6% from deep.
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“The only way you can get good spacing is if you have good shooting,” Davis said. “You can put five guys and spread them out all over the floor. If they can’t shoot, there’s gonna be five defenders in the lane. You have to have guys that have the ability to shoot the basketball. Throughout his career, he’s been a great 3-point shooter.”
Evans and his new Tar Heel teammates will face BYU and Winston-Salem State in preseason action, then kick off their regular season Monday, November 3 against Central Arkansas.
If Evans continues to drain threes in Chapel Hill, UNC suddenly becomes a significantly more dangerous team – and hopefully, an ACC contender.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Hubert Davis praises Kyan Evans’ experience, 3-point shooting ability
