By Kevin Armstrong, SI.com

*****

A cut above: Evans is averaging 34.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 5.5 steals this season. Kelly Kline

Perhaps American Christian assistant and Tyreke's personal trainer, Lamont Peterson, puts it best when talking about the school's basketball program these days. "This is a rock tour with Tyreke," Peterson said before a recent game. "Someone should have been taping all of this."

If the cameras had been rolling, they would have caught Jon Bon Jovi attending two games at the Tri State Sports Center, where American Christian plays its home games and where the Philadelphia Soul, the AFL team owned by Bon Jovi, practices. They could have followed him up and down the stadium steps at nearby Villanova University's football stadium, where Evans trained this summer.

Clean-cut with no tattoos, Evans has appeared on seven magazine covers, including Slam and Dime. But he has yet to commit to a college. Though he has watched as his former summer circuit opponents have enjoyed instant fame, he is the oldest 18-year-old, experience-wise, on the prep scene. "His peers were always his elders, even on the playgrounds," said James Evans. From Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley to Eric Gordon and Derrick Rose, Tyreke has played with or against them all, but not all scouts believe he will travel the same path.

"I think those players were all sure-shot one and dones," said one Big East coach. "Tyreke separates himself from pure athletes because he also has a skill set. I'm not sure that Tyreke is gone after one year, though."

Evans' short list of schools includes Villanova, Memphis, UConn, Louisville and Texas. Coaches still cozy up and talk with him after games, striking up innocuous conversations during the quiet recruiting period where they are permitted to evaluate but not talk with recruits. At least one college coach has picked up the tab for the brothers while in the same restaurant. Bergeron says he has thrown two runners for agents out of gyms in the last year, and to his knowledge, no one has been able to penetrate the perimeter set up by the brothers.

Still, there are the constant whispers that after Evans visits Memphis on Feb. 23 for the Tigers' showdown against Tennessee, he will commit to Memphis because of his family's friendship with influential facilitator William "Worldwide Wes" Wesley.

Wesley, who speaks in "we" and "us" when discussing Memphis, looks the part of a successful businessman and tells those he advises, "I would be doing you a disservice if I did not share this information with you." A mortgage broker by trade, he has counseled Memphis coach John Calipari on creating a sphere of influence in China, helped guide Camden, N.J., native Dajuan Wagner to Memphis and has advised Derrick Rose and his brothers along the way. "Wes is the guy who is there for the kids when they don't make it to the NBA," said one major Division I coach. "I have no problem with him in the picture."

"The family has known Wes for years before we knew Tyreke would be what he is today," James Evans said. "Blogs and papers love to associate his name with us. At the end of the day, Tyreke's commitment will not be about his brothers or Wes. It will be his decision."

Onlookers still buzz, though, whenever there is a sighting of Wesley with an Evans. There was Wesley, dressed to the nines with his arm around Eric Evans, outside the Memphis locker room following the Tigers' early-season win over UConn on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden. Carrying a green "Participant" credential in his left hand, Wesley huddled with Eric Evans and then Calipari in the bowels of the Garden.

As one major Division I coach says, "At least when you go up against North Carolina and Duke you know what you are up against. With Memphis and Wes, that's a wild card."

*****

Last Monday at the Big Apple Basketball Invitational in New York City's Baruch College gym, fans, college recruiters and old-school icons like Howard Garfinkel and Ernie Lorch looked on as American Christian made its second trip of the season to the Big Apple.

"Is Tyreke Evans here tonight?" asked one Division I coach looking to evaluate the star.

When informed that Evans wouldn't be playing due to a concussion sustained while attempting to block a shot a week earlier, the coach rolled his eyes and departed out the gym's back door.

As the headliner on American Christian's nationwide tour, Tyreke's absence was notable, but he is scheduled to return to the New York metro area on Saturday when the Eagles take on St. Benedict's postgrad team in Newark, N.J. Tired and still recovering, Tyreke knows that the show must go on. Since the shooting, he has neither run nor hidden, seemingly unaffected by the near-death experience.

On Sunday, Evans and the Eagles are scheduled to play at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Just another weekend on tour. "It's a little tiring," said Evans about the travel. "But I just focus on the basketball."

No one in the family is saying where they expect Tyreke will wind up next year. With family roots in North Carolina, they are Tar Heel fans, but Tyreke felt he would not fit in the system that Roy Williams runs. Villanova pitches a vision of Tyreke staying home on a campus he knows so well, being the next star in Nova's four-guard offense.

Memphis would love Evans to follow Rose, who will likely leave after his freshman season, and enjoy the freedoms that Calipari affords his guards. Louisville, which was the apparent leader for so long, wants to pair him with signee Samardo Samuels, and will see him up close again when American Christian plays at Freedom Hall for the second time this season on Feb. 16. "After the Memphis visit I will sit down and make a choice," Evans said. "All are so good, but I have to see what is best for me."

Still, some question Evans' motivation on the court and whether he'll have a killer instinct at the next level. Because he has played at such a high level for so long, his uninspired nights have coaches wondering if he can turn it on next year as easily as he turns it off. "No matter the shooting or any nagging injuries, I just have to play my game," said Evans. "I just want to play. No questions asked."