Brown: Freshman center Dennis Evans could be next big thing for Louisville basketball

Louisville men’s basketball associate head coach Danny Manning once told me a little-known fact about many 7-footers: A lot of them wish that they were shorter.

Or maybe at least that the rest of us were taller.

They don’t want to stand out in the way that being taller than everyone else draws attention to them.

They grow up with a certain insecurity that permeates into their play on the court. Making themselves smaller has become such a way of life that they don’t have a presence on the court that matches their enormous frame.

Manning knows it firsthand, as he grew to 6-foot-10 before having a Hall of Fame college basketball career while leading Kansas to the 1988 national title. That Manning recognizes the issue and knows how to address it is one reason freshman Dennis Evans won’t have that problem.

Evans, a 7-1 center from Riverside, California, could have the type of rookie season that makes people forget Trentyn Flowers was supposed to be on this team. He was ranked the No. 3 center in the Class of 2023 in the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Evans has a slim build — he’s listed at 215 pounds — and like most first-year players needs to add strength. But he’s already a presence that many his size have to be taught at this stage of their careers.

Evans wowed fans at the Red and White intrasquad scrimmage last week with five blocked shots. U of L didn’t have a rim protector last season, which is part of the reason it ranked 13th in blocked shots per game at 2.81, just edging Wake Forest and Notre Dame; and last in the ACC in field-goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot 47.1% from the floor.

Evans goes after shots in the manner someone with a 7-7 wingspan should. So much so, U of L guard Skyy Clark said he even has to alter how high he throws lobs when Evans is on defense.

“He’s going to be amazing for us,” Clark said.

Manning developed John Collins at Wake Forest from an unheralded, three-star recruit ranked 185th in the 247Sports Composite into a first-round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Evans has that kind of potential, too.

He’s well ahead development-wise of where Collins was when he entered school. And from how he seeks out knowledge in practice, he’s eager to learn more.

Manning has already been a steady voice helping Evans.

“Danny’s done a great job after practice of grabbing Dennis and just taking him through stuff that he has to do,” U of L coach Kenny Payne said.

Payne was an assistant at Kentucky who helped with the development of Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns, and he’s pushing Evans to be sculpted in that same mold.

He doesn’t want to limit Evans to being a traditional big who clogs the lane on offense and defense. Payne is trying to develop Evans’ lateral quickness and general awareness to defend on the perimeter and be able to pop outside the lane on offense, too.

“I'm trying to develop a force,” Payne said.

It’ll take a lot of work to get him there. Foul trouble usually comes with being physically weaker than the more mature bigs he’ll face in the ACC like North Carolina’s Armando Bacot and even less agile like Duke sophomore Kyle Filipowski.

U of L bigs Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Emmanuel Okorafor will play a big role in aiding Evans’ development by taking on some of those bigs instead.

Payne believes the faster Evans soaks up what he’s learning, he’ll be a game-changer for the Cards.

“If I can get Dennis Evans to figure out all these things,” Payne said, “… I have a player who can change the dynamic of a basketball team. That's what I’m pushing him to do.”

Evans at least has the first step down already. He's a big who's trying to act like one.

More: 3 stretches that will make or break Louisville basketball in Year 2 under Kenny Payne

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball: Kenny Payne, Danny Manning can develop big star