Oregon Ducks forward Kwame Evans announces plans for his junior season

The good news for the Oregon Ducks men’s basketball just keeps coming.

A few days after point guard Jackson Shelstad announced he will return to the Ducks for his junior season, forward Kwame Evans says he will join Shelstad next season, according to James Crepea of The Oregonian.

Waiting on Evans’ decision has been an anxious one for Dana Altman and the basketball program. Replacing the 6-foot-9 forward would have been a tall order, but now they won’t have to explore the transfer portal, at least for the power forward spot.

Evans was a five-star recruit who has steadily progressed in his freshman and sophomore seasons. It’s expected he will have a breakout season in 2025-26 as a junior. For this past season, Evans was one of the best sixth men in the Big Ten Conference.

As a sophomore, Evans averaged just six points a game in just 16 minutes of action. He had an up-and-down season where he showed flashes of brilliance and dominated at times. But then there were games where he was non-existent. Oregon hopes and needs Evans to show more than flashes next season as he is projected to be a starter for the Ducks.

The only question now is whether or not center Nate Bittle is going to return. He is testing the NBA draft waters right now and a definitive decision for Bittle will come in the next few weeks.