Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt decides on assistant coach

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt was looking to add experience when he decided to revamp his staff in early April.

Experience is what Nutt got when Jessie Evans joined the Redhawks as their top assistant this week.

The university has not announced Evans' hiring because he has not yet signed his contract, but that is said to be a formality. Nutt won't be able to comment on the hiring until the contract is signed and an official announcement is made, which should be in the next few days.

The 62-year-old Evans is a former coach at two Division I programs. He also served as an assistant at several notable Division I programs, including Arizona, where he helped Lute Olson win the 1997 national title. Evans assisted Olson for nine years and was credited with recruiting some of Arizona's top players.

Evans, who played at Eastern Michigan from 1968 through 1972, is most well known for taking Louisiana-Lafayette to a pair of NCAA tournaments.

Evans won four regular-season Sun Belt Conference championships and two Sun Belt Conference tournament titles at Louisiana-Lafayette, which he led to a 132-81 record in seven seasons from 1997 through 2004. Louisiana-Lafayette won at least 20 games four times under Evans.

Evans did not experience similar success at San Francisco, where he went 45-57 in nearly four seasons from 2004 through 2007. He coached just 12 games during the 2007-08 campaign before taking a leave of absence.

He eventually was fired without coaching another game there.

Evans, whose overall coaching record is 177-138, also has been an assistant at Minnesota, San Diego State, Texas and Wyoming in addition to Arizona.

Nutt still is in the market for a No. 3 assistant. Jamie Rosser, who has been with Nutt during his first three seasons at Southeast, remains on the staff.

Nutt had been short two assistants since he decided in early April not to retain Kyle Gerdeman and Jeremy Case. Both had been with Nutt during his first three seasons at Southeast.