Corey Evans
Appearances
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Yeah, it's been a long, long process for sure. I would say I had some mistakes along the way, for sure. And that's why I tell a lot of young folks getting in the business, when you're young, make some mistakes, learn and grow. And that's how you get better and figure out what your niche is. I learned early on that relationships were the most important thing in all of the world, right?
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Your line of work, my line of work, anything in general. So Starting out to go back about 15 years, I graduated from Old Dominion. I was actually roommates with Kent Bazemore on the NBA side. So it's funny how it all works. And I actually developed some inroads with TJ McConnell when he was in high school. And I actually got on staff for a year at Duquesne.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
And I'm actually from Pittsburgh as well. So it was amazing, right? Like you're right out of college. You're 21 years old.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
you're back home at duquesne i'm 10 minutes away from my parents i'm coaching tj mcconnell it's we're gonna do this real fast right like we're we're ready to rock and roll and a year later we go 17 and 15 and we get fired so i i found out very very fast how the business of college athletics and everything in line in the world works and it's all about winning in the bottom line so i I was fired.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
We were fired on staff there. And I wanted to get back into college basketball and coaching. That was always the pathway for myself that I saw. But I also didn't want to put myself in the spot where a year from then I'd be fired again or go to a place that wasn't conducive for learning and growing and impacting in the right manner. So on a whim. I picked up a scouting service.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
I created my own college scouting service for a year or two. I had about 20 programs on board. I was charging about 200 bucks a piece. So you can figure that out. A lot of long days, a lot of long nights, living in my parents' basement there, living in the car on the road. But I just love what I was doing. You know, when you have a passion, it doesn't really matter when you're that young.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
You'll know better, right? And but making my way into the industry, I just loved figuring out how people worked and developing the right relationships. And it was authentic. And I think after a while, when you're consistent and you work hard and you build that the right rapport with people, it just keeps building and building and building.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
It's almost a 10,000 hour rule. Right. And it's osmosis. It's just being around the game of basketball. Uh, The McConnell thing and the Ken Bazemore thing helped me immensely, right? You have two guys that are the underdog that have no reason to be in the NBA for 10 years, and you're on the ground floor seeing it every day.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
So you have that along with the work ethic, along with making mistakes, along with being self-aware enough to say, I better hurry the hell up, man. Like I'm not where I need to be to be where I want to be. So you keep investing every day and around the game and watching and watching and watching. There was a half, I think you can relate naivety to it all.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
So you'll know what you don't know, but you also are self-aware enough and hardworking enough and humble enough to be open to not being afraid with being the dumbest guy in the room and keep learning and keep giving and keep trying to be around better people that might teach you.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Yeah, going back on that, Sam Pressy always said, I'm going to bat 300 and you might bat 280. So he's going to be wrong a lot too. So you just might as well just stick to what you believe in and what you see. And as long as you've done the work, Hey, I'm going to get something wrong. You're going to get something wrong.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
And you can look back at the Oklahoma city thunder drafting and it's been amazing, but there's also been some misses there as well. But I think a large portion of that is situational base, right? Do you have some players that, like a trade man for us from Oklahoma City. He's more than good enough.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
He's an NBA player, but the situation might not have been conducive enough for his role and for his abilities. He's definitely a top 300 player in the NBA. It's just with our roster construction, it wasn't meant to be. So learning that and learning how to specify a role and making sure that they're above a certain threshold elsewhere, makes them good enough, I hope.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
But going back in the Oklahoma City thing, it's funny how it all works. I work with a good buddy of mine, Pete Thamel, who was at Yahoo Sports when I was at Rivals. And Pete was actually the editor at the Daily Orange at Syracuse when Carmelo went on the run in 01, I think it was. And at the time, Troy Weaver was the coach responsible for recruiting him to Syracuse.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
So Troy and BAML developed a great rapport for 20 years and Pete and I got very close and one thing led to the next and he connected me with Troy Weaver and Troy and I developed inroads to a certain extent over a two, three year timeframe. And that is what kind of led me to Sam Presley and Oklahoma City Thunder eventually. I think Sam wanted someone on the ground floor
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Sam called me up one day at USA Basketball in Colorado Springs and said, Corey, would you like to meet tomorrow? Are you in Colorado Springs? Dot, dot, dot. This is Sam. I'm like, who the hell is Sam? Like, what runner is this now? Like, what middleman is this? So it was Sam Presti. And we talked for about four or five hours the next day about where things were going.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
And it was a couple months after he traded for Shea Gilgis. And... It was the vision and place he had. He was very resolute with where things were going to go as far as not a complete teardown, but that we just traded Paul George for four first round draft picks. A guy named Shea Gildas Alexander who could be really good in the NBA and that we might have more draft picks on the way.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
And we need someone on the ground floor that knows the whole industry, that knows the people in the industry, that knows how the kids think and work. And, you know, I got to thinking, hey, is this the right step for me? It was not an immediate yes. When you become comfortable with where you are and you feel like you're among the very best in your industry, it's a jump, right?
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
You want to jump over that ledge and burn the boats in a sense, but are you ready for it? And ultimately, again, Ryan, like looking back on it, what a dumb ass, right? Like, why wouldn't you have done that, man? It's where things are now. But at the time, you're going back and forth of, is this the right move or not?
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
I could talk about that for an hour to be in that room with Sam Presley and Rob Hennigan, former GM of the magic. And now, uh, AC Law, the former A&M star, they know where they're going and they know what they want. And it's about processing. It's about positional size and versatility. And the most important part is intel.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
I didn't understand why we were digging so much as far as the person and the character and who's around the person. And that has been transformational for me moving ahead is, you know, Oklahoma city is not LA. It's not Miami. It's not New York. So the right person has to be in mind before the right player has to be in mind. So how does the person tick who's behind them?
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
What's his, why does he care about winning? What's his habits? Is it a two parent household or is there an accountability figure behind him that he you know, when shit comes at him, how is he going to respond? Is it the first time in his life that he's being held accountable? And in the NBA, that's the first time you're going through that. It's going to be hard to succeed.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
You know, Ryan, ultimately, I'd like to get back to an NBA front office as a GM. So it was a matter of is this before all else making this move? Will it educate me? Is it apples to apples or apples to oranges? Right. I don't know that right now. I'm a few weeks in and shit is flying everywhere. So, but the most important thing was I've always been a person that does not want I want to grow.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
I want to learn. But most of all, I want to impact people's lives for the better. And that's the coaches, the support staff, and the players themselves. And I knew making this jump, the scouting life is not the easiest in the world. It's very lonely at times. Rightfully so. You're doing 200 days on the road. To be a part of
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
of the fabric of a team directly was the one thing that I was most looking forward to. And Cincinnati has all the resources, has all the right people in place. It was a matter of, can I come in and help these people out, alleviate some of the excess BS that has kind of added up over the past few years on these coaches' laps, and help be that switch to propel them from
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
We're turning down players that in Oklahoma City I was all about. Let's get this guy. Let's get this guy on our draft board. We need guys that are going to win right now. That was the hardest jump for me from high school to the NBA or college to the NBA was
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
looking five years down the road or six years down the road, when you're in the NBA and you're evaluating a player at 18 years old, you're more so trying to predict where they're going to be from 25 to 28, their core years. In college, you're watching a guy in the portal Where is he going to be next year? And how does that jump up immediately?
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
It's all about the immediate returns compared to Oklahoma City where it's way down the road. So that's been very, very difficult is trying to, and the word you use, lens, trying to have that lens evolve a little bit, but like that. So I'm jumping on a car on the Autobahn with my hiring process and trying to change my lens with my vision in place all at the same time.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Has not been easy, but the key fundamentals that I want and the staff wants is, it kind of goes back to the thunder process, shooting, intel, good human being, hardworking nature, and processing.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Yeah, I think we'll eventually get there potentially. Andrew Luck is a totally different, that's way outside, but it's a one and only, it's a unicorn right there. Wes and I had known each other for 15 years, probably. So having that relationship where we're in a way tied at the hip has definitely been beneficial. There's already been days that we're cussing each other out.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
But I don't really see him as my boss in a sense. I see him as we're on the same team together. And we have the same buy-in. And all we want is to build a winning team here at Cincinnati. And it's year five. The last four years, they've been knocking at the door. And my only goal here is to help those guys get to where they want to go, which is the NCAA tournament and beyond.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Yeah, Ryan, you and I are probably similar where – We grew up with college basketball and we were a fix on one program in particular, right? And we love the following one prospect along the path. That's gone now. And it's never coming back, potentially. Maybe it's a two-year thing with employment, whatever it might be. But... The promising side is you saw what happened at Louisville last year.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
You saw what happened at Kentucky. Missouri went 0-19 in SEC play, and they were a top five team in the league last year. So we've lost a few players, and it's also given us leeway to... have the vision in place and not be boxed in with who we have in our roster. So we're pretty excited about who we have coming back.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
And it allows us to pinpoint specifically our needs and also have some wiggle room as far as not being boxed in with a player or a prototype or a position.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
any given year it's a what if every year in the past it was another down year or we're waiting till we get old and now it's like we can turn this around in an off season so it makes things much more transient in a sense and it it There's more questions at hand, and it's very ambiguous, this whole industry. But it also allows, I'm sure after last year, Missouri fans, what are they saying?
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Oh, get rid of Coach Gates and this and that. And now, six, eight months later, they're one of the best teams in America. So as long as the right coaching staff is in place and the right athletic department is there behind those guys with alignment, I think the what if and the hope of being a Florida and Auburn, it's always available.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
So you're going to have the non-traditional Blue Bloods have a chance to actually make a run here. You see BYU now in our league. You see Iowa State now in our league. Auburn, Florida, Alabama. And we're hoping to be one of those schools as well.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
I think that's our job to remind them and give them a hint. and even the Big O, the tradition is unbelievable as we know. So it's about rekindling that, but it's also about, we're now in the Big 12. We're in a major basketball league. We're not what it was five, six, seven, eight years ago. So this is the third year of Cincinnati being in the Big 12. So it's kind of like,
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Let's create our own tradition, our new tradition. Let's look back at what it was yesteryear. And now let's kind of catapult ourselves further based off what we were and now what we can be.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
I'll write that down for future use.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
You can throw a little James White in there, too. I mean, we have some high flyers for sure. So we can bring back some physicality and blue collar with also some finesse and athleticism.
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Luka’s Homecoming, an NFL Draft QB Breakdown With Quincy Avery, and Cincinnati Basketball GM Corey Evans Joins
Can I get some kickback here off the name, the David Protein Bar? I mean, that's all I'm saying. So you should look it up. 25 grams of protein, 150 calories. It's top-notch, brother.