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VCU Basketball: In-depth look at Rams senior guard Marcus Evans

ByBryan Mauro|
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Marcus Evans #2 of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams reacts against the UCF Knights in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Marcus Evans #2 of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams reacts against the UCF Knights in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: The Virginia Commonwealth Rams mascot performs against the UCF Knights in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: The Virginia Commonwealth Rams mascot performs against the UCF Knights in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

VCU Basketball has built one of the premier programs in the A-10 Conference. Their best player Marcus Evans could lead them to a big run this upcoming season.

After a bounce back season, VCU Basketball is on track to make noise on a national level. They bring back just about all of their rotation players from a 25+ win season, including leading scorer Marcus Evans. He hopes to have a big year for a program with high aspirations.

Richmond, Virginia home to two division 1 college basketball teams. Those teams both play in the Atlantic 10 conference and both have completely different trajectories. The Richmond Spiders are mired in a slump that has seemingly lasted forever. Their current coach Chris Mooney has put a stagnant product out on the floor for the last handful of years. Richmond fans long for the days when they can look to their bitter rivals in the same city as equals instead of superiors.

Virginia Commonwealth University, also known as VCU, are the other team in Richmond Virginia, and the Rams are the team many in the Atlantic 10 are striving to be. The tradition rich program has been led by numerous high major coaches and they have not skipped a beat in the transition from coach to coach. Shaka Smart, now at Texas, led the Rams to their only final four appearance. Coach Will Wade, now at LSU was able to guide the Rams to two straight NCAA appearances. Current head coach Mike Rhoades led VCU to the NCAA tournament a year ago and has them in a prime position to head back this season.

The one common theme amongst all the coaches, are the all had stars on their team who would later become household names. Coach Smart had Eric Maynor, Treveon Graham, Juvonte Reddic and Briante Weber. Coach Wade had JeQuan Lewis and Justin Tillman and now Coach Rhoades has the next player in a long line of stars to play for the Rams. That player is senior guard Marcus Evans. Evans and his path to stardom is a great one. The guard started his career at Rice where he became a star. When Coach Rhoades left Rice to come coach VCU his star guard followed him. The rest is as you say, history.