FIU Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia announces that the contract for head men’s basketball coach Anthony Evans will not be renewed. The Panthers will begin a national search for a new head coach immediately.
“I want to thank Anthony for the job he did with our men’s basketball program,” Garcia said. “He recruited and produced good character — student-athletes that were a respectful group of young men. He did a phenomenal job helping improve our APR, graduation rate and overall academics in men’s basketball and got our student-athletes more involved in the community. I want to thank him for his service and bringing stability to the FIU men’s basketball program.”
Under Evans, the FIU men’s basketball program produced two of the highest single-year APR scores – 980 in 2015-16 and 978 in 2014-15. It’s anticipated that the program will have the highest multi-year score in the program’s history when scores are released publicly next month. In last year’s report, the men’s basketball multi-year score had the biggest jump for FIU, improving 52 points to 968.
In the last four years under Evans, the Panthers had 14 players named to the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll including five players in 2016.
Evans finished his head coaching career with the Panthers 65-94 overall and 33-56 in Conference USA in five seasons. FIU finished tied for seventh in C-USA this past season.
The school will have no further comment until a new head coach is named.
