What NC State Fans Should Know About Kyle Evans
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RALEIGH — Justin Gainey continues to work on his first roster at NC State. The first-year men's basketball coach added his third player out of the transfer portal earlier in the week, bringing in UC Irvine forward Kyle Evans to bolster the frontcourt for the 2026-27 season with a serious shot blocker.
Evans was the nation's leading shot blocker during the 2025-26 season with the Anteaters and helped his team come painfully close to an NCAA Tournament berth, making it all the way to the Big West title game. Now, he'll bring his talents to the ACC for a shot against high-major competition. Will the big man be up for the challenge?
An elite rim protector is coming to Raleigh
NC State is getting the best shot blocker in the country from a statistical standpoint. Evans averaged 3.3 blocks per game during the 2025-26 season, racking up a whopping 115 blocks total. When watching the big man against Big West competition, he made basketballs look more like volleyballs during several monster performances as the starting five for the Anteaters.
Evans blocked five or more shots five different times during the season, including a pair of eight-block performances against Northern Iowa and Hawaii. The overtime win over the Rainbow Warriors was one of the more impressive rim protection displays by any big man around the country all season long. Evans, 6-foot-10, went toe-to-toe with Hawaii's Isaac Johnson, a 7-footer who averaged 14.1 points last year. Johnson scored 17 points, but most of his damage came from 3-point range.
Kyle Evans: roll the tape 🎥 pic.twitter.com/7jUJFeBRYm
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) April 22, 2026
In that game, Hawaii had a lower overall field goal percentage (33%) than it did 3-point percentage (41%). It's easy to see why, with Evans roaming the paint and making up ground with his impressive wingspan and reflexes.
Perhaps the most important aspect for Evans is his ability to defend without fouling. Throughout last year, he committed just 2.5 fouls per 40 minutes, a shocking mark for a player right in the middle of the defense so consistently. As a defender, the Wolfpack is getting a truly elite option around the rim, but there are still major questions about other parts of his game.
Can he be productive offensively?
The forward spent his first two seasons with Colorado State, where he struggled with injuries and lacked playing time to properly develop. When he transferred to UC Irvine, there was a learning curve on both ends at the collegiate level, but Evans carved out a solid role off the bench for an oversized Anteaters squad that played in the NIT Championship game.
During that NIT run, one head-to-head matchup stood out. The Anteaters took on UAB in the quarterfinal, beating the Blazers 81-77 in overtime. Evans played 11 minutes, scoring eight points off the bench while blocking three shots. The most important part of the game wasn't his box score, but rather who those stats came against. NC State's new big man went up against future national champion Yaxel Lendeborg, then a Blazer, handling the assignment well when his name was called.
UC Irvine's Kyle Evans with a near-triple-double against Hawaii 🤯🤯
— The Portal Report (@ThePortalReport) January 30, 2026
19 points
11 rebounds
7 blocks
2 steals
7-12 FGs
What do we think of his game? 🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/9Ir0u4FSZS
Offensively, Evans improved his production significantly when he became a starter during the 2025-26 season. While he doesn't offer anything special as a backdown scorer, he offers soft touch around the rim and his athleticism makes him very effective in the dunker spot. He averaged 12.1 points while shooting 62% throughout the year. He attempted just 10 triples, making two, so don't expect him to fill any sort of floor-spacing role for the Wolfpack.
Still, there's potential for NC State's new big man to grow more offensively, especially with the soft touch he showed around the rim. If Gainey's new staff can help Evans become more confident as a scorer, his production could prove essential to any success the Pack has during the 2026-27 season. Even without improvements on that end, his defensive value is the critical factor.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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