University of Massachusetts men’s basketball head coach Frank Martin announced the hiring of Anthony Evans as the Director of Player Development on Wednesday afternoon. Evans joins the Massachusetts staff with 11 years of experience as a Division I head coach and was most recently the Advanced Regional College and High School Scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Thankful to UMass and Ryan Bamford, with the addition of two more coaches that can be added to a staff, they have allowed me to make a hire for a director of player development role,” said Martin. “I am excited to introduce Anthony Evans into that role. Anthony is a long-time head coach, having led Norfolk State to the NCAA Tournament with an upset of Missouri and then was a head coach at Florida International. He will oversee our daily academic responsibilities along with the individual player development on the court. He will also assist us with on campus recruiting with his natural ties to his home in New York City.”
Evans spent five seasons as the head coach at FIU following six years as the head coach at Norfolk State. At FIU, Evans’ teams ranked in the top-10 percent nationally from 2015-17 in the NCAA Academic Progress Report and coached multiple Conference USA all-league and all-defensive players.
Evans became a collegiate head coach for the first time in May of 2007 as he was promoted to head coach at Norfolk State after four seasons as an assistant coach. During the 2012-13 season, Evans led his squad to the program’s first MEAC regular season championship and was named the league’s coach of the year after posting the conference’s first unbeaten season since 1994. Evans also guided the team to its first Division I NCAA Tournament as a 15-seed during the 2011-12 season and upset no. 2-seeded and no. 3 nationally ranked Missouri in the second round.
