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RYAN EVANS gers won by 46 points which tells you even more about Evans' commitment to engaging in loose ball scrambles regardless of the score. "Just trying to stay active,'' he said. Which, in turn, is a big part of just trying to stay in the starting lineup. "My whole thing this year,'' Evans said, "was to come in and play team basketball and hustle like I've been doing throughout my career. "By taking it one day at a time, I know my hard work will pay off for me individually and definitely pay off for me in the team aspect.'' Through the first seven games, including the A Big Ten/ACC Challenge at North Carolina, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound Evans has been a starter on the frontline with Jared Berggren and Mike Bruesewitz. Evans has doubled his playing time from his sophomore season, which by his own admis- sion was disappointing in that he fell off in every statistical category from his redshirt freshman year. "Last year,'' Evans said with a sigh, "was a tough year for me.'' After scoring 11 points in two of the first three games, he scored in double-digits only twice more over the next 31 games. More often than not, he was an afterthought in the rotation. Evans conceded that he felt alone at times. "And that's when you'd start to think about things,'' he said, "and you'd call home or you'd go to music.'' His family in Phoenix, Ariz., was very sup- portive. So were his Badger teammates. And, of course, he always had his music. "R&B keeps me going,'' Evans said. 38 ยป VARSITY DECEMBER 1, 2011 fter a recent nonconfer- ence game, Ryan Evans was sporting a few stitches un- der his chin, the result of floor burns; a staple of the UW program. On this night, the Bad- What also kept him going was some history with such adversity. "I learned from "He feels more comfortable in his own skin,'' associate head coach Greg Gard said of Evans' growth over the offsea- son. "There are a lot of things that you can't teach and it just comes down to a natural feel. my sophomore year of high school that I could persevere,'' Evans said. That's because he wasn't good enough to make his high school team until his junior year. As a late-bloom- er, there was the inevitable growth spurt which turned him into a prospect. The Badgers re- cruited Evans based on his projected de- velopment as a col- lege athlete. Along with Berg- gren, a member of his recruiting class, Evans redshirted as a freshman. "I needed the red- shirt and I'm glad that I took it,'' said Evans, a fourth- year junior. "I defi- nitely wouldn't want this to be my senior year.'' Nor, for that matter, would the UW coaching staff, given his production to date. "He feels more comfortable in his own skin,'' said associate head coach Greg Gard. Maybe it had something to do with the in- struction that he got over the summer when he