Junior forward Jeremy Evans got a pretty friendly round of thank-yous a season ago following Western’s Sun Belt Tournament Championship win against Middle Tennessee State.

His career high 20 points and season high 14 rebounds led the Toppers to an NCAA Tournament appearance.

That night, Evans was the scorer.

A role he is willing to take on again this year.

“He has to understand that, when he’s open, I want him to shoot, and when he gets the ball on the block, if he would just turn around and jump, there aren’t many people that are going to stop it,” coach Ken McDonald said. “He might miss, but that’s part of it. I want him to get comfortable scoring the basketball and confidence is definitely a factor.”

Evans said he still is adjusting to finding the confidence to shoot the ball and often finds himself second-guessing his decisions.

“(The adjustment) has been pretty hard because I’m used to screening and rolling last year, but I think I’ll get there after a while,” Evans said.

There’s not just the incentive of points that Evans can produce when he shoots the ball, but shooting during practice also keeps his teammates from potentially doing some extra conditioning.

“The other day I stopped practice a couple times because he didn’t shoot, and I made the guys run,” McDonald said. “Because he just didn’t understand that him taking whatever, a turnaround jump shot or an open 10-footer, is better than someone else taking a three-pointer.”

Junior guard A.J. Slaughter said that if Evans and sophomore forward D.J. Magley can step up, it will provide opportunities to open up the perimeter players.

“I think it’s going to be significant to how far we go depends on that scoring punch inside,” Slaughter said. “We’re going to need Jeremy and D.J. down low to open up the outside and just play from the inside-out.”

Evans led the Toppers in scoring on only two occasions, both coming in last year’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament, earning him the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honors.

Evans said much of his focus so far in practice has been being aggressive and going to the basket, as well as developing as a leader alongside Slaughter.

“Coach is getting on us to talk to our teammates and open our mouths,” Evans said.

McDonald said Evans is just going through a transition in his time at Western.

“He’s going from one part of his career to another, and he needs to see himself in a bigger light,” McDonald said.

Reach Andrew Robinson at sports@chherald.com.