After showing up to support new Colorado State men’s basketball coach Ali Farokhmanesh at his introductory press conference Friday, CSU sophomore Kyan Evans reportedly entered the transfer portal Saturday.
Sam Kayser of League Ready first reported Evans had entered the portal, and now Evans is listed as a portal entry by both 247Sports and On3.
Evans has yet to confirm his portal entry in public or on social media.
The 6-foot-2 point guard averaged 10.6 points and 3.1 assists per game in 2024-25, his first season as a starter. He gained national notoriety with his performance in the Rams’ NCAA Tournament first-round win over Memphis.
He made six 3-pointers against the Tigers and led the Rams with 23 points in their first round-of-64 victory in the tournament since 2013.
Evans shot 45% from behind the 3-point line for the season and had at least one 3-pointer in each of the final 15 games of the season. He shot 60% (24-for-40) from 3-point range over eight games in March as he helped lead the Rams to their first Mountain West tournament title since 2013.
On Monday, CSU freshman forward Jaden Steppe announced on X that he is entering the transfer portal as well. Steppe appeared in seven games for the Rams last season, totaling 12 minutes on the court. He scored seven points, five of which came Feb. 15 against Wyoming.
Players who enter the transfer portal are allowed to return to their team, but that doesn’t happen often.
Pilipovich joins CSU staff
On Monday, CSU officially announced the hiring of veteran coach Dave Pilipovich to Farokhmanesh’s staff.
Pilipovich, 61, spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach at New Mexico under Richard Pitino. Pitino has since taken the head coaching job at Xavier, but instead of following Pitino, Pilipovich is joining the Rams’ staff.
The new Rams assistant has almost 40 years of coaching experience, including a nine-year run as the head coach at Air Force from 2011-20. He has also coached at Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Robert Morris, Florida Atlantic and in the San Antonio Spurs organization.
He joins two other assistants on Farokhmanesh’s staff. On Friday, it was announced that current Rams staff members Tim Shelton and Ken DeWeese are being retained.
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