Cal Poly Senior Chris Eversley Leads Way For Mustang Madness
Story by Olivia Phelps
Chris Eversley did not always have a net around his neck.
He also did not always have 1,000 career points to his name and was not always a first team All-Big West honoree either.
Actually, no net has ever decorated the neck of a Cal Poly men’s hooper.
But last week the senior forward earned the chance to say in regards to the Big West Tournament trophy, “I’ve got to kiss it one more time,” as teammate and fellow senior Jamal Johnson momentarily let the hardware out of his hands for the post game press conference.
(Johnson remained in the audience keeping a close watch on his teammates, his coach and his trophy just moments after leaving the excitement of the court rushing.)
“Surreal is the word,” said head coach Joe Callero on his squad making Cal Poly history by clinching its first-ever Big West Tournament title.
“Every day when we went into practice, we looked at the blank banner for NCAA Tournaments for men and we realized that we wanted to put a 2014 up there,” said tournament MVP and starting forward Eversley. “We knew that we had to work every single day. We made sure that everybody looked at that banner when we came into the gym and when we left the gym.”
At 10-19 entering the post season, the No. 7 seeded Mustangs clinched the Big West Tournament for the first time in Cal Poly history and earned their first-ever ticket to the Big Dance.
“We started the conference season off 3-0 and we’re supposed to finish it 3-0,” added Eversley.
Coming off of a 3-10 run headed into the tournament, the Stangs had their share of struggle and strife, but never doubted their abilities.
Earlier this season, Eversley became the 21st Mustang to amass 1,000 career points, and the journey was not without a few bumps and bruises along the way.
It was 26-19 Cal Poly over visiting UC Davis on January 30 inside the Mott Athletics Center, the home of the Mustangs.
Eversley had the ball in the right corner with UC Davis’ Ryan Sypkens breathing down his neck.
“Eversley backs up, he’s got an open 16-footer…” called ESPN Radio play-by-play Tom Barket.
“I drove baseline and I hit [Davis’ guard] with a step-back between the legs,” said the Mustangs’ leading scorer as he put away his favorite career points to this day.
“Boy, that’s a pretty move, and a pretty shot,” finished Barket as Eversley sent the ball soaring through the net.
While the Mustangs took a 28-19 lead with two minutes to go in the first half, Everlsey joined the ranks of the Mustang greats before him as he added K-Club to his list of accolades.
“It meant a lot,” said Eversley on the milestone. “It’s a testament to all of the hard work that my teammates and I have been putting in. They’ve been putting me in position. Jamal [Johnson] is sixth in assists for scoring at our school too; I’m pretty sure a lot of those have gone to me so he’s as much a part of it as I am.”
It was on that same baseline two years earlier that the 2014 All-Big West second team honoree scored his first points in a Cal Poly jersey against visiting San Jose State – the jersey in which the senior claims he’s going to “leave it all in”.
“It’s fortunate that I happened to be that guy to do it,” said Eversley on amassing 1,000 points, “because anybody can. It’s a blessing.”
The fifth-year senior, who redshirted the 2010-2011 season after transferring from Rice University, notes that when he first arrived in San Luis Obispo he was a long way from tallying so many buckets.
When the six-foot-seven Chicago native started his redshirt sophomore campaign, the forward averaged just 14.2 minutes on the floor with 6.7 points per game before earning his first start 22 showdowns into the season.
Since then, Eversley has started 70 games, including all his junior season and all but one this year.
The senior is currently averaging 13.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game to lead the Mustangs while shooting 40.9 percent from the floor, 29.7 percent from beyond the arc and 60.7 percent from the line.
With noteworthy efficiency, Eversley ranks atop the conference in points per game (13th), rebounds (6th) and steals (5th) while shooting his team into the NCAA Tournament.
“Coach Callero and the coaching staff have definitely taken the time to help me develop personally and put me in positions within the offense to help me thrive.”
The position in particular: the wings. The athletic forward likes the versatility of that area of the court and works to get into those mid-range slots.
“I want to be a mid-range specialist,” said the forward after agreeing with Steve Kerr (Chicago Bulls ‘96-’98, San Antonio Spurs ’99-’03) that there is a lost art in the NBA of the mid-range shot.
While that shot can give players difficulty, Eversley says that the key is perseverance.
“Keep shooting. Just keep going. You should never feel like, ‘Oh, I missed three or four in a row,’ you go out with the mindset: ok, I missed three or four in a row, now I’m going to go out and make the next three or four.”
What makes Eversley unique isn’t his ability to consistently put points on the board; rather, it’s his presence on and off the court.
The word that comes to mind? Magnetic.
Even Reggie Miller, who called Cal Poly’s first game of the NCAA Tournament, picked up on Eversley’s energy.
In what the senior recounts as his favorite post-season moment thus far, in a tweet Wednesday night after Cal Poly downed Texas Southern 81-69 in Dayton, Ohio, Miller said to Eversley, “Congrats on the big win, good luck in St Louis, they will follow your lead…”
Callero adds that the Mustangs have “unbelievable senior mentorship” in Eversley, Johnson and three-point specialist Kyle Odister.
The coaches even sent the Mustangs to their shoot around the day before the championship at the Honda Center, by themselves.
“That’s called faith,” said Callero. “I have faith in them that they know what to do.”
For instance, the night Eversley tallied 1,000 points, Callero said on his senior leader, “Best part about Eversley is he would rather win [than] be a part of the 1,000 point club.”
At the time, the Mustangs had just been saddled with their third conference loss and fell to fourth in the Big West standings.
Eversley said, “Winning is more important than scoring 1,000 points.”
While the Mustangs struggled, going 1-4 in their next five outings, Eversley remained in the top 12 with points scored per game in the Big West.
“The main thing is keeping the guys’ energy up just as much as yours is. Even if you have your own personal flow going, you need to pass that on and realize that it’s bigger than you.”
No stranger to game day rituals, one of the ways the senior keeps his teammates’ energy up is his sense of humor. His lucky charm? A particular body wash he uses before every game.
“To be great at something,” said Eversley, “you have to be a little weird” – an idea Callero shared with the now-senior before he committed to Cal Poly, an idea that lured the forward to California from Texas.
Thinking back on all of the shots it took to reach 1,000 in three years, the senior said, “I really wanted to be able to do something with my career here because I was coming off of a school where I was basically doing the same thing, just sitting on the bench.”
At the conclusion of the 2014 regular season Eversley received second team All-Big West honors, to add to his 2013 first team award and 2013-2014 preseason all-conference first team nod.
Coach Callero told his senior, “People get honors when they win. We didn’t have a winning preseason so there were no honors. If you have a winning postseason you get some big honors.”
And big honors he received.
The 2014 Big West Tournament MVP cut down the nets on Mar. 15 after slaying No. 2 seeded UC Santa Barbara 69-38 in the quarterfinals, No. 1 seeded UC Irvine 61-58 in the semifinals and No. 5 seeded Cal State Northridge 61-59 on a storied night in Anaheim, CA.
“Without [my teammates], that honor definitely would not have been bestowed upon me. It’s a testament to what these guys do and the emotional stamina that these guys have.”
Freshman Ridge Shipley’s game-winning three-pointer in the final seconds of the title game is a testament to Eversley’s belief that winning is more important than any individual accolade.
With 14 seconds left on the clock, Eversley shuttled Shipley the ball from the right side.
Shipley let it fly, and sunk what might be the most fateful shot in Cal Poly history to clinch the Mustangs’ first-ever berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Shipley shares Eversley’s philosophy:
“It doesn’t mean too much to me personally,” said the freshman point guard on his made three, “but to the team, it got us the victory.”
Shipley’s shot, Odister’s drained free throw with four seconds remaining in play, and the thousand previous buckets that Eversley nailed to have the opportunity to take the court on a national stage, placed a net around Eversley’s neck that night.
But he and the Mustangs are not finished.
With a No. 7 seed in the Big West Tournament, the Stangs became the lowest seed to take the title and the lowest seed to defeat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds on consecutive nights.
Cal Poly is also the lowest seed to advance to the NCAA Tournament and with a victory Wednesday night in the First Four, is the first Big West team to record a W at the Big Dance since 2005.
“We’ve been through a lot over the four years,” said Johnson to Eversley as the senior guard was handed the mic to ask the last question of the post-Big West finals press conference, “can you tell me how you feel at this moment in time, how it culminates into this one game?”
“We’re family,” responded his teammate on the podium. “Blood couldn’t make us any closer.”
Families, “they’re not supposed to get together just on family gatherings like holidays and weddings and great things, but they’re together on funerals too.
“We’ve beat top teams, and we’ve lost to pretty bad teams.”
And now they’re out to do something that has never been done before: knock off a No. 1 seed, an undefeated, 34-0 No. 1 seed at that.
While the dark horse continues to make history, the senior dreams of more than a net around his neck to go with his 1,000 career points and the “2014” that will decorate the no-longer naked banner hanging inside of Mott Athletics Center.
Eversley wants a ring on his finger.