Evans' Departure Fitting By Southern Standards

[Ed. Note: As promised in our tagline, The Big Dead Sidebar presents a different side of the story. Here is a different look at Nick Evans' departure from the Southern Illinois men's basketball team]

If you look at Nick Evans leaving Southern Illinois University Carbondale's men's basketball team on an individual level, it makes sense considering the state of the SIU system.

Put it out of your mind that nine SIU players have severed ties with the program since Chris Lowery took over at his alma mater in 2004.  Get there yet?  Good.  It's almost scary to think that Evans' departure falls in line with the collegiate careers of many college students, including those at SIUC.

While it looks like freshman fall enrollment could increase by 26.9 percent, retaining these students has been an issue.

Even though Evans was listed as a sophomore, he redshirted his first year, making this season his third on the Carbondale campus.  By all accounts, Evans was an above average student, but by minimalist standards he should be on pace to reach senior status if he completes all the necessary course work by the time May rolls around.  No matter how it happens, I hope Nick didn't waste his time at SIU and hopefully will complete his degree in whatever field he is expected to pursue.

Evans, like many Southern Illinois students, will not get a chance to pursue that as a Saluki.

For one reason or another, the rate of retainment at SIU drops each and every year. After a nice group of freshmen come in, the number of sophomores, juniors and seniors dwindles as time goes along.  With that being said, Evans might as well be considered as just another statistic.

If anything, Evans' time at SIU is representative of the time any normal student would spend on a college campus.  In fact, I'll share the story of a friend of mine whose college career paralleled that of the former Saluki center.

Like Evans, my buddy enjoyed his time at Southern by living the good life.  The kind of life portrayed in full-length motion pictures about what college life is.  I'm talking about socializing with pretty girls, parties and just enough school work to get by.  However, with more responsibility came less of the stuff that good stuff and more of that responsibility stuff your parents warned you about before you left for the college campus of your choice shortly after graduating high school.

Like Evans, he found himself taking on a bigger role as a college student and needed to be more focused.  And even though he will never be confused with a 6-foot-11-inch ginger, my buddy dropped out of school before he could complete his degree at Southern.

Unlike the blogosphere, where I (claim to) have the answer to what ails my favorite sports teams, I have no idea how to fix the enrollment issues at my alma mater.  Nor do I have a clue how to fix the lack of class balance for my beloved Salukis.

On the educational side, newly appointed chancellor Rita Cheng can handle that, while Chris Lowery has the unenviable task of doing that on the men's basketball side of things.