Dennis Evans' tall tale: How the Louisville basketball big man became marquee 2023 recruit

Dennis Evans III's mother, Tayonah, wanted to do something special for her son on graduation day, a gesture celebrating the Louisville men's basketball signee's past and future. 

So she took the 7-foot-1 center's red Hillcrest High School gown, had an artist airbrush a cardinal perched atop a Trojan helmet on the back and presented it to him before he received his diploma May 24. 

The moment was one of many Evans savored during the buildup to his arrival in Louisville over the weekend to begin summer workouts. The former Minnesota signee hasn't stopped living in the gym with his travel ball coach, Elvert "Kool-Aid" Perry, since Hillcrest’s season ended in February, but there's also been time to unwind — like a class trip to Disneyland. 

"It’s a different experience balancing-wise," Evans told The Courier Journal. "I want to do so much training so I’m not a step behind when I get there, but I still have to stop and enjoy some of the little things."

A consensus top-10 big man in the 2023 recruiting cycle, Evans joins U of L with lofty personal goals and external expectations. As the highest-rated prospect to sign with the Cardinals since head coach Kenny Payne was handed the reins of his alma mater in March 2022, the Riverside, California, native will play a pivotal role as the program tries to bounce back from the worst season in modern history, hopefully boosting his NBA draft stock during the process. 

"It's going to be a joy to watch him grow and become one of the best players in college basketball," Payne said in a statement upon Evans signing his National Letter of Intent in April. "There's no limit on the potential of how good he can be. He's a tremendous human being that has the character and the discipline that we sorely need in this program."

After putting in the work to transform from a middle schooler who would fall over himself dribbling — and was on the wrong end of a viral dunk — into one of the most sought-after centers in the country, Evans echoed his new coach while explaining why anything feels possible. 

"There’s not many limits," he said, "to what a person can learn and grow to become."

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'Looking at the future'

Four years ago, Evans went crashing to the floor under the weight of a thunderous right-handed slam from Mikey Williams off an inbounds lob pass during a game in the Compton Magic League. Williams, who by that point had established himself as one of the top emerging talents in the Class of 2023, stared down Evans while flexing his muscles. 

Perry, who coaches AAU ball for Team Inland, recognized the moment's significance in Evans' development while playing above his age. He was the person who pushed the big man to pursue basketball only a couple years earlier, when they met through one of Evans' cousins who took the court for his travel squad. 

So, after the game, Perry had Evans accompany him out of the gym. And he told his pupil that he would soon become one of the best players in the country. 

Evans has grown several inches since then, and with Perry he’s committed to a grueling training regiment. For six days a week they’d work from 5:30 to 8:30 a.m. on making his skillset match his imposing frame.

"I really didn't think I was gonna develop much on the offensive side," Evans said. "I thought I was mainly gonna be a shot-blocker, so it's really crazy to look now and see how far I've come on both sides of the floor. It's just a small bit of motivation to continue to work and continue what I’ve been doing to get better."

Evans graduated from Hillcrest with his name all over the Trojans’ record book. According to head coach Jackson Wood, the left-handed big man set career highs for blocks (563) and triple-doubles (seven) while finishing second in all-time scoring (1,083 points) and rebounding (794).

As a junior, he began attracting Division I coaches by averaging 11.6 points with 10 rebounds and seven blocks per game, according to MaxPreps.com. Taking on a more vocal leadership role as a senior, Evans bumped his scoring up to 14.7 points per contest and his assist/turnover ratio from 0.69 to 1.02 while tallying an average of 10.6 rebounds and 5.9 blocks.

Perry said Evans had opportunities to finish his prep career by competing on AAU circuits sponsored by shoe companies and at high schools that offered more national visibility, but Evans said he chose to stay at Inland and Hillcrest because he wanted to "stick with the situation that’s gonna help me grow, whether for good or for worse."

"He was looking at the future, not the past," Perry said of Evans' decision. "And his future is, 'I wanna be a better ballplayer. I wanna be that dude. I don't wanna be limited in what I can do.'"

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'More work to do'

In January, Evans learned he was not one of 12 players who would be representing the West in the McDonald's All-American Game in Houston. 

Perry called the omission "a tragedy." Evans said it was a sign — "there’s still more work to do."

"He said, 'I'm gonna get in the lab and work on my game,'" Perry said. "That's how simple it is."

Perry and Evans dedicate a half an hour each training session to ball-handling drills, then the big man operates out of catch-and-shoot scenarios and facing up defenders on the low block, inducing contact to prepare him for the physicality he'll experience in the college ranks. 

"We didn't want him just to be a lob-catcher," Perry said. "Ain't no dunks at all."

That work paid off during Evans' senior season at Hillcrest. With Wood's encouragement to take more of the open 3-point looks he was getting, he shot 9 for 27 from beyond the arc (compared to 1 for 6 as a junior), according to MaxPreps, and his free-throw conversion rate increased from 60% to 74%.

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"I just gotta get more used to playing in that type of role to where I should look to pick and pop and take the open shot," Evans said, "instead of just the dribble handoff."

One reason Evans chose Louisville is because Payne developed centers such as Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns into No. 1 overall NBA draft picks during his time as an assistant on John Calipari's staff at Kentucky. Evans said Payne told him getting to that level would be "a challenge," but it's one he plans to embrace. 

If he rises to the occasion, it would be a boon to the program as it looks to return to a standard set when players like Wes Unseld and Pervis Ellison were patrolling the paint. 

"It definitely plays a role, wanting to get back to the level of success they used to have," Evans said of what's motivating him as he arrives on campus. "Getting back to being able to compete at the highest level possible."

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @brooksHolton.