photo by: Damon Young/Kansas Athletics

Kansas guard Elle Evans, a transfer from North Dakota State, shoots in practice during a workout in June.

Kansas women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider was among the first to learn that Elle Evans planned to leave North Dakota State.

His source was his close friend, the man who replaced him at Emporia State and served under him at KU, NDSU head coach Jory Collins.

“He actually called me right after Elle had left his office and made the decision to go into the portal,” Schneider said.

As it happened, Evans was also already acquainted with both Schneider and his recruiting coordinator Morgan Paige, herself a former NDSU assistant. That led to what Schneider called “an immediate comfort level” in the recruitment process.

“Whenever I first got the phone call from the portal, it was kind of like I already had known who it was, so it wasn’t like I was talking to a stranger,” Evans said.

That promising start led to a successful conclusion, as Schneider and his staff were soon able to sign Evans even as she was “highly, highly recruited,” he said. The former Summit League freshman of the year, a wing, will join the Jayhawks as a junior, coming off a season in which she averaged 15.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and figures to make an immediate impact on a team with plenty of fresh faces.

“Ever since the first phone call, I feel like this was just a place that I could see myself and really fit in what they were looking for, and it just checked all my boxes, personally,” she told the Journal-World. “And I can say ever since being here, it’s been nothing but amazing and everything that I would have imagined whenever we talked about it from out of the portal.”

With longtime program fixtures Zakiyah Franklin, Taiyanna Jackson and Holly Kersgieter exhausting their eligibility after two tournament berths and a Women’s National Invitation Tournament title, among other departures, Schneider was working with a lot of open spots in the offseason. He looked for players who could improve KU’s depth, its length on the perimeter (an area in which it hasn’t always stacked up against top-notch teams) and its 3-point shooting.

Evans fits the bill well, and she’s even exceeded expectations since arriving on campus.

“It’s really encouraging that when you recruit a player they come in and prove right away that they’re significantly better than what you even thought they were,” Schneider said. “That’s how we feel about Elle and why we’re so excited about the value that she’s going to bring to our team on both sides of the ball.”

A native of Edwardsville, Illinois, she is uncommonly tall for a wing at 6-foot-3 and was also the nation’s fifth-best 3-point shooter last year at 45.7%.

“I feel like I’m very versatile,” Evans said. “Even on the defensive end, I feel like I can guard multiple positions, which can be helpful in some scenarios, but also just if a shorter guard’s guarding me, just taking advantage in the mismatch, maybe trying to post up a little bit, but also if a taller guard’s on me, or even like a 4 or 5, just being able to take them off the dribble.

“Just little things like that, I feel like will be very helpful. And obviously playing at a higher level, I’m hoping to expand my skill set a little bit for the Big 12 and hopefully continue to be a versatile player on both ends.”

As for her long-range shooting, while she credited her extra shooting reps and tried-and-true routine for her consistency, she also attributed lots of her success to her former NDSU teammates who set her up well for all those shots — and now, she says, “I’ve seen here, just in a month, I’ll probably be able to get some passes from S’Mya and Wyvette, hopefully, to keep that going.”

Indeed, the Jayhawks did retain starting guards Wyvette Mayberry, a super-senior, and S’Mya Nichols, a freshman.

Nichols delivered on her immense promise in her first season, leading KU in scoring with 15.4 points per game. More broadly, after the staff moved her to a primary ball-handler role around the end of January, the Jayhawks lost just three remaining games: at Baylor and against Texas and USC.

Needless to say, with three years left to play she became for Schneider a massive selling point on the recruiting trail.

“I think it was a huge part of every recruiting conversation that we had and that we will continue to have, is the opportunity to play with an elite playmaker who has a strong desire and willingness to make everybody around her better,” he said. “And that’s, I think, what every type of player wants to play with and go compete with.”

Evans also called Nichols “a phenomenal player.”

“She’s an amazing passer, she’s an amazing driver, she’s an amazing shooter,” she said. “She does all the things well. So having a leader like that on the floor, it’ll play big down the line, but also even off the court, you know, she’s big about team bonding with everyone, getting everyone to hang out … and really building those friendships off the court too, which will (pay) dividends on the court.”

One note on Evans, versatile though she may be, is that because she is not a post player by trade, she does not necessarily help KU fill the void left by Jackson at center. As part of a broader array of changes with eight new players coming in, that task will instead fall to a committee of players familiar and unfamiliar.

Returnees Nadira Eltayeb — a full-participant in non-contact workouts so far after her season-ending injury last year — and Danai Papadopoulou provide a “strong, power-like game,” Schneider said, while freshman Regan Williams and JUCO transfer Freddie Wallace are stretch forwards who can help KU play faster.

“We don’t have anybody similar to Twin and what she brought to our team, but I do think that we’re going to have more depth and we’re going to have more flexibility there,” Schneider said.

Even if Evans doesn’t figure strongly into that particular plan, she seems poised to spend plenty of time on the floor this year. That’ll mean a bigger audience (including more family in attendance, as she’s closer to home) for a player who, when she occasionally played in front of packed gyms at North Dakota State, found herself thinking, “I would love to do this every single night.”

She’ll now get to be part of a team that had some of its best-ever attendance last year, and, of course, plays at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I feel like I get chills thinking about it,” she said. “It’s so exciting.”

photo by: Damon Young/Kansas Athletics

Kansas guard Elle Evans goes for a layup during a workout in June.