Tennessee Basketball signs four-star guard Amari Evans, four-star center Dewayne Brown
Tennessee Basketball has officially signed its two commitments in the 2025 recruiting class, adding four-star shooting guard Amari Evans and four-star center Dewayne Brown on Wednesday. Evans committed to Tennessee on November 1 and Brown has been committed since April.
Brown, a 6-foot-9, 235-pound prospect out of Hoover, Alabama, is ranked No. 102 overall in the On3 Industry Ranking and is the No. 9 center in the country and the No. 1 player in the state of Alabama.
“We are quite pleased to officially welcome DeWayne and his family to Knoxville,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said in a press release. “He comes from a very successful high school program, Hoover, at which he has won back-to-back state titles.
“DeWayne is a skilled forward with the ability to score in the paint. However, he is also adept at both shooting and facilitating on the perimeter. He is a hard worker who is receptive to coaching and we feel he will be an excellent fit for the culture of our program.”
Evans is a 6-foot-5, 204-pound four-star prospect in the class of 2025 out of Pittsburgh, Pa. He’s ranked as the No. 83 overall recruit in the On3 Industry Ranking. He’s the No. 21 shooting guard in the country and the No. 12 overall player in Georgia, where he plays in the Overtime Elite prep league.
“We are excited to bring Amari and his family into our program,” Barnes said. “Stylistically, he was one of the better fits in the country for us. Amari comes from an AAU program, the New York Lightning, that we have had a lot of success with in our time here.
“He possesses toughness, shooting ability, skill and a superb basketball IQ. Amari hangs his hat on being a high-level defender, which is something that stood out right away to us. More than anything, though, he is a winner.”
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Evans took an official visit to Tennessee in August and had an unofficial visit with the Vols back in January.
“Coach Rick Barnes is a hard-nosed coach,” Evans told On3’s Joe Tipton. “He’s one of the few Hall of Fame coaches left. There’s not very many of them. That stood out. He’s just a winning guy with a great personality.”
Evans explained what the Vols were getting after committing to the program earlier this month.
“A hard player, amazing defender,” he said, “love my teammates, and will do anything to win.”
It will be another offseason of roster overhaul for Tennessee. The Vols currently have two fifth-year seniors on roster in Chaz Lanier and Darlinstone Dubar and four seniors, in Zakai Zeigler, Igor Milicic Jr., Jordan Gainey and Jahmai Mashack.
Tennessee last spring lost four players to the NCAA Transfer Portal — Jonas Aidoo (Arkansas), Tobe Awaka (Arizona), Freddie Dilione V (Penn State) and DJ Jefferson (Longwood) — and added four players out of the portal, getting Lanier, Dubar, Milicic and former Ohio State center Felix Okpara.
On3 Scouting Report — Amari Evans
Amari Evans has a good basketball frame with nice length and broad shoulders. He has nice positional size as a complimentary guard. Evans is a capable shooter with range beyond the arc. He is a solid secondary ball handler, able to restart possessions and get the ball where it needs to go. He can also defend at the point of attack or off the ball, being aggressive in the passing lanes. Consistency is the next step for Evans as he continues forward, that should be helped by finding a defined role for himself. A strong guard with flashes of dribbling, shooting, and passing has value in today’s game.
