Recruiting Report: Joe Evans (2018)
One of the state’s best two-way athletes, Ames’ Joe Evans is not just a standout on the hardwood, but on the gridiron too.
The 6-foot-3 forward is Iowa’s 41st-ranked 2018 for his prowess as a versatile forward, but he also amassed 2,194 yards of total offense and 23 totals touchdowns for the Little Cyclones’ football team last fall.
He says he’ll forgo playing grassroots ball this spring and summer, but he’ll get into the gym on his own time.
Which, when your dad is the principal of the school, is pretty easy to do.
“My dad is the principal of the high school, so that’s really good for me because he can just give me the keys and I can come up and shoot at the gym whenever I want to – so that really works in my favor,” said Evans, who says football is his first focus right now.
“This summer I’m really focusing of football, and it’s hard for me to play on an AAU team. If a team needed me to come and fill in for a weekend, I would. I’ll play in team camps for all of June and stay in the gym in July, and then that’s when football season starts.”
Evans added: “I would say as of right now I’m pursuing football (in college), that’s probably my main sport and I really love playing that. But if I did get some basketball offers I would look into that because I really love that sport too.”
Though he’s not counting out college hoops as an option juts yet, it’s his football that recruitment has been more active so far.
“For football I’ve gotten stuff from Iowa, Iowa State, UNI, I’ve gotten a couple letters from Louisville,” said Evans. “And for basketball I’ve just gotten some JuCo letters, and some D3 and D2.”
Still, he’s one of the Iowa’s best basketball players, and he defined what it is that makes him so successful on the hardwood.
“I would say my strengths right now would be in the post, just being physical down low. And I can stretch out and hit the 3, or take people down low in the post,” said Evans, who averaged 16.5 points and 5.9 rebounds last winter as a junior.
“Things I definitely want to work on this year would definitely be my ball-handling, and maybe work on bringing it down the court sometimes and what not.”
Next season, Evans will again need to be the team’s leader, and says he and versatile 2019 forward Japannah Kellogg will be a tough duo to contain.
“My role this season was to get in there and play as hard as I could, and when offenses sagged off me I would shoot the ball,” said Evans. “And next year it’s me and Japannah coming back, and he’s going to be really good, so I’m looking forward to next year with him and some of the younger guys.”