By Jeff Schultz | Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 09:31 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In his four and a half years as Georgia’s athletic director, Damon Evans has hired a women’s golf coach, a women’s soccer coach and a women’s volleyball coach.

I’m sure they’re all very fine people, and one day I might even know their names.

This isn’t to short-change anything that Evans has accomplished during his tenure. Georgia has one of the premier athletic departments in the nation. It scores high in the campus version of mind-body-spirit: facilities- fundraising-wins. Evans is a significant reason why.

But his resume has a blank page.

Fair or unfair, an athletics director often is judged by the success of the football and/or basketball coaches he hires. Evans didn’t hire Mark Richt or Dennis Felton (though he had input on the Felton hiring, whom he just fired). That’s not a knock on him. It’s just circumstances.

Florida’s Jeremy Foley probably has excelled in areas most people don’t realize. All most us know is, he’s the guy who hired Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan. For that, we view him as Zeus.

“Not to discount any of the hires we’ve made here,” Evans said Tuesday, “but I understand the magnitude of this.”

Firing Felton was not a sudden thought. The belief is that Evans planned to do so 11 months ago. Then the Bulldogs went on that improbable run in the SEC tournament, and Evans really had no choice but to hope there would be some sort of carryover. There wasn’t.

To realize where this is going, you need to understand something about Evans. Basketball is one of his passions. He was the MVP of high school team and might’ve played it in college, except that, well, no D-1 school was offering a scholarship.

When he was the associate A.D. under Vince Dooley, Evans and other coaches often played pickup basketball games. One of the players in those games, swim coach Jack Bauerle, joked: “I tried never to argue with him because I sensed one day he might be my boss. He’s a pretty competitive guy. Even though those games were just for fun, they weren’t leisurely. If Damon ever lost, he’d say, ‘OK, we’re doing this one again.’ “

Evans was a wide receiver at Georgia. But the basketball team’s struggles always have gnawed at him, particularly with the rise of programs at Florida and Tennessee.

“I’ve been thinking about building Georgia basketball for a long, long time — ever since I first got here,” he said. “We’ve had a few good stints, but that’s not enough. I’m looking at things from a business standpoint. When you stand back, you ask: What is not living up to its potential? What can give us more visibility and create more excitement on campus? Basketball hasn’t allowed us to do that.”

Evans said he wants a coach who has experience running a major program. He wants someone who understands how athletics and academics work together. Finally, he wants someone “who can get out there and recruit players and bring some talent to the university.”

I can think of a lot of reasons why Bobby Knight is a bad fit in Athens, but there’s a big one right there: Not a lot of top recruits want to play for him. It’s the primary reason his teams failed to win an NCAA tournament game in nine of his last 13 seasons. (And do you want a 68-year-old, to say nothing of an obstinate, ticking time bomb, when you’re trying to establish long-term success?)

How high are Evans’ expectations?

“I want to win championships,” he said. “I think we have to awake the sleeping giant.”

It’s an attitude that’s long overdue. Evans pushed for the new training facility adjacent to Stegeman Coliseum, and said of criticism of the arena: “When you lose, people look for excuses why.”

He’s right. Guess what, folks: Sanford Stadium is no palace. Neither are half the college basketball arenas in the country. If games sell out, it’s because of the product. It doesn’t matter if the place looks like a cow pen. Have you been to Cameron Indoor Stadium?

There is only one excuse for losing at Georgia: hiring the wrong coach. That’s where Evans comes. That’s where he’ll be judged.