What Motivates Jacob Evans? How Can He Improve? His College Coach Has the Answers

Jacob Evans -- the Warriors' first-round pick -- did a good amount of winning over the course of his college career.

Cincinnati went 30-6 in 2016-17 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Cincinnati went 31-5 in 2017-18 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

[LISTEN: Warriors Outsiders Podcast: What does the Jacob Evans selection mean for Pat McCaw?]

What drives Evans and what makes him want to be great?

"Here, we spell fun 'w-i-n.' That's a saying we have in our program," Evans' college coach, Mick Cronin, said on 95.7 The Game on Friday morning. "We don't just play the game. We play to win. And Jacob is trained to play to win. He's always been that way ... Jacob Evans is a guy who's a coach on the floor ... he plays the game to win.

"You're not gonna see him making mental mistakes. That's just not who he is ... to answer your question -- my long answer is -- winning motivates Jacob."

Evans shot 42 percent from deep as a sophomore and 37 percent as a junior.

What aspect of his game needs the most improvement?

"Number one would be consistency of his shooting," Cronin answered. "He was a guy who would go a month and wouldn't miss a shot, and then he'd go a month and he would struggle a little bit.

"And I've spoken to the Golden State staff about this -- they know mechanically, there's some things that Jacob can work on to become a more consistent shooter -- as far as his release point of his shot.

"He hit the jackpot in a lot of ways -- being with a great organization, he's got four of the best players in the world to learn from ... they're gonna need him to play ... he's got opportunity, which is the key when you're a professional athlete."

Did Cronin give him any advice throughout the draft process?

"When he made the decision to go professional, I told him it shouldn't be based off where he's gonna get drafted. It should be based off of: Is he ready for grown men to try to rip his head off. You're trying to take somebody's job.

"These guys are grown men and they have wives and children and bills, and it's not what you see on television."

Evans will be introduced at a press conference on Monday at 11am PT.

Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller

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