Tyreke Evans, the nation's highest ranked and unsigned boys basketball recruit has taken care of half of that description, committing yesterday to play next year at Memphis.

Evans, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from American Christian High in suburban Philadelphia, chose Memphis over Texas and hometown Villanova. Essentially, Evans will replace guard Derrick Rose, who announced yesterday that he will leave the Tigers after one year to enter the NBA draft. Evans was a three-time state Player of the Year, and averaged 29 points a game this season. He scored 21 points with 10 rebounds in the McDonald's All-America game recently.

Besides a desire to play for a contending team -- the Tigers lost to Kansas in overtime in the national championship game last week -- Evans may have had other reasons to want to get out of Philadelphia. Evans' first cousin is facing first-degree murder charges in Delaware County, Pa., for a November incident in which a man was shot after walking up to an SUV that Evans was a passenger in.