COLLEGE BASKETBALL NOTES : By Keeping Evans in Limbo, Pittsburgh Is Hurting Itself

Paul Evans deserves an answer. More than half the season is gone and Evans still has no idea whether he will be back as Pittsburgh’s basketball coach next season.

Even worse, recruits who might be considering Pitt have no idea who will be coaching the team next season. When that happens, a program essentially is shut down.

Evans, who turns 49 Monday, has the Panthers headed toward their sixth NCAA appearance in his eight seasons at Pitt, but his contract expires at the end of this season. He hasn’t received an extension. He hasn’t been told this is the end. He hasn’t been given a timetable.

“It’s been tough on me,” Evans said in a recent Big East coaches conference call. “You worry about every game, every shot. ... I don’t know what the deal is. I think we have a few alumni who wish we had John Calipari back.”

Evans made that statement before it was reported that Calipari agreed to a six-year contract extension as coach at UMass. Of course, contracts mean very little in the age of the escape clause.

Calipari is a former Pitt assistant and has been rumored to be in line for the Pitt job for several seasons. Calipari is known to have some support among alumni who want to hire a high-profile recruiter. Every time the rumors began in past seasons, Pitt started winning and Evans saved his job. This time, it isn’t clear if winning will be enough.

The NCAA placed Pitt on two years’ probation in November. Evans wasn’t implicated in any of the NCAA findings, most of which involved improper recruiting inducements provided by former assistant John Sarandrea. If there had been a direct connection to Evans, maybe he’d know his fate. Instead, guilt by association has left him in limbo.

Pitt received no postseason or TV sanctions. At the time the probation was announced, Athletic Director Oval Jaynes said an evaluation of Evans “will be made in the near future.” More than two months later, everyone is still waiting.

The team will play in a new 15,000-seat, on-campus convocation center by 1996. That should help recruiting. But right now, the process has come to a standstill. As a result of the probation, Pitt will be limited to 12 scholarships (one fewer than the NCAA limit) for the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. The NCAA also reduced the number of expense-paid visits for recruits next season.

Those limitations are compounded by the uncertainty over Evans’ future.

“It hurts (recruiting),” Evans said. “We only had one kid visit in the fall. When we get to the point where a kid is going to put us in the top five, the other four coaches say, ‘Why would you want to waste a visit there? He’s not even going to be there.”’

Maybe the Pitt administration is waiting to see if the Panthers go into one of their late-season swoons. Only once in the past five seasons has Pitt been better than .500 in the final 10 games of the season.

If that is the criterion Evans is to be judged on, the Pitt athletic department is sending out a very bad message. Evans deserves an answer and he deserves it before the season is over.

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Remember the old days when Syracuse couldn’t hit a free throw? Don’t look now, but the Orangemen lead the Big East in free-throw percentage (73.1 percent -- 225 of 308 -- before playing Saturday). Syracuse was outscored, 32-7, from the line in a 96-82 loss at Providence Tuesday, but went 7 for 10 from the line. That made Syracuse 77 for 90 from the line (85.6 percent) in a four-game span. “If we shot free throws like we used to, we’d be 1-6 (in the Big East),” Coach Jim Boeheim said. “We’ve had great free-throw shooting, which we’re unaccustomed to -- but we’ll take it. Actually, we’ve spent less time on it than we used to. Maybe that’s why. We don’t think about it now.” ... Boston College guard Gerrod Abram became the first Big East player to shatter a backboard since Pitt’s Jerome Lane in 1988 when he dunked against Providence Jan. 22. Abram is 6 foot 1, 169 pounds, but he forced an 18-minute delay with his shattering performance. “It was my first (broken backboard) and last probably,” Abram said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. My first thought was Shaquille O’Neal and Chocolate Thunder (Darryl Dawkins). I knew when I did it, that it put me in their class.”

Seton Hall point guard Bryan Caver has always wanted more playing time. He is getting it now that Danny Hurley is on an indefinite leave of absence because of depression. Caver recently played 275 of a possible 280 minutes. “As much as I like this, I’m not a robot,” Caver said. “I’m human. I get tired like everybody else.” ... Miami has become an embarrassment to Big East basketball. The Hurricanes announced a crowd of 2,870 for their game against Seton Hall at Miami Arena Wednesday night. The game was televised by ESPN and empty seats dominated most camera angles. On the same night, the UConn women announced a paid attendance of 5,826 for their home game against St. John’s. ... The St. John’s men’s team experienced an 80-degree temperature change last week, going from 5 below in New York to 75 in Miami. ... Syracuse’s Lawrence Moten fouled out for the first time this season Jan. 22 against Seton Hall. “Usually he’s very smart,” Boeheim said. “For him to foul out is unusual. It’s difficult when you don’t guard anybody most of the time.”

UMass junior guard Mike Williams, who spent Thursday night in a hospital after collapsing in the second half of the Minutemen’s 76-74 loss to Cincinnati, was cleared to fly home with the rest of the team Friday after undergoing tests. The next step is to determine when it’s safe for him to play again, so the doctors at UMass will run some more tests in the next few days.

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It’s no surprise, but ESPN and ABC analyst Dick Vitale has UConn’s Donyell Marshall on his midseason All-America team. Joining Marshall in Vitale’s top five are California’s Jason Kidd, Duke’s Grant Hill, Purdue’s Glenn Robinson and North Carolina’s Eric Montross. Player of the year? Vitale says Marshall is “a close second” to Robinson. “Marshall has really closed the gap,” Vitale said. “The kid is the total package.” Vitale gives UCLA’s Jim Harrick the early nod for national coach of the year and Maryland’s Joe Smith freshman of the year. ... Jervaughn Scales of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., ranked first in rebounding (14.9) and second in scoring (28.0) in Division I last week. Only two players have finished first in both categories: Wichita State’s Xavier McDaniel (27.2 points, 14.8 rebounds) in 1984-85 and Loyola Marymount’s Hank Gathers (32.7, 13.7) in 1988-89. ... Texas guard B.J. Tyler has been on a tear, averaging 28.5 points, 7.6 assists, 3.2 steals and 5.3 three-pointers in a recent 10-game stretch. After the Longhorns won nine of 11 games, Coach Tom Penders started campaigning for Top 25 votes. “Take Louisville and give them our schedule and their record would be no better,” Penders said. ... Big Eight teams are 5-0 against the Big Ten this season.