Once overlooked, Shannon Evans II is a wanted man at Arizona State.

It’s a welcomed change for the emerging Sun Devil star.

On Saturday night, the senior guard was again a magnet for attention inside Wells Fargo Arena after posting 22 second-half points to lead the current-No. 16 Sun Devils to a desperately-needed conference home win.

Swaths of the sell-out crowd clamored for Evans after the final buzzer, with dozens of outstretched arms begging for a piece his scorer’s touch as he exited the court. During a post-game press conference, the relaxed guard lightheartedly admitted to a capacity-filled room of reporters that coach Bobby Hurley “just yelled at us” during Saturday night’s halftime (ASU was trailing Oregon State and Evans had zero first-half points), unaware that Hurley had slipped into the back of the media room to catch his senior out his intermission antics. An affable moment in the wake of ASU’s intensified 77-75 win.

After the formal presser, Evans met with more reporters in the hallway outside the Sun Devils locker room, before heading back onto the court to oblige several other on-camera interviews.

Even if he wanted to, there was no escaping the spotlight.

Of course, Evans didn’t want sneak away from the recognition. Not after he spent the early portions of his basketball career searching for it.

Meeting again with reporters on Tuesday morning, the former 2-star prospect was still pained to remember his unheralded recruitment – a process that included few Division I offers and even less media buzz.

“Nobody really wanted me out of high school,” said Evans, who became a cornerstone piece of Hurley’s first-ever recruiting class at the University at Buffalo in 2013.

Two years and over 15 points per game later, Evans finally had options when looking to transfer after his sophomore season: Follow Hurley to ASU or return to his home state of Virginia, where his stock had peaked since becoming one of the better mid-major scorers in the country.

It was an easy choice.

“I didn’t pay close attention to (those schools) because I grew up there and nobody looked at me then,” Evans said. “I just wanted to stay with Hurley, somebody I trust, somebody I’m loyal to. It worked out for me.”

Evans didn’t need to be a blue-chip recruit. The chip he still carries on his shoulder drove him to become a mainstay for the nationally-relevant Sun Devils.

“You see of guys that had 5-star rankings and things like that growing up,” Evans said. “To be able to catch a few of those and still compete with those guys, it’s amazing for me.”

Five years of college basketball has meant plenty of personal transformation.

“My first couple years was more so just trying to learn the system and learn how college basketball works,” he said. “Now I’m older so I kinda show the other guys how it works.”

A benefit from that experience: Knowing how to break a slump.

Easily forgotten during Saturday’s triumphant effort and subsequent media circus was that, only nine days earlier, Evans was in the midst of a season-worst shooting slump.

His 11-point, 0-for-8 3-point shooting display in ASU’s Jan. 4 loss at Colorado was the fifth straight underwhelming performance for Evans, who shot just 25 percent and averaged barely 12 points per game (down from his season average of 17.4 ppg) between Dec. 17 and the CU defeat – a second consecutive setback that firmly dropped ASU into its first funk of an otherwise fairytale season.

Not that the struggles stopped him from going in front of the camera that night either.

The only Sun Devil player to speak to the media in Boulder, Evans was a model of composure, claiming the overtime loss to the unranked Buffaloes wouldn’t “define our season,” before making a promise:

“We’ll come out firing again, it’s what we do.”

In the three games since, he’s made good on that vow, helping ASU rebound from its testing start to Pac-12 play.

During his personal turnaround, Evans is averaging 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game. He has buried his shooting woes, having made half of his field goals and 63 percent of 3-pointers during the three-game hot streak. Most of all, he has been the offensive catalyst for ASU’s two wins against Utah and Oregon State – the only two conference victories on the Sun Devils’ resume thus far.

His scorching return to form is emblematic of his, as Hurley describes, “fiery” personality.

“When he is playing well, he is very fearless,” Hurley said. “…He takes the defensive end personally. He’s got a knack for just making big shots, timely shots.”

The unreserved 23-year-old plays the game without worry and does little hide his self-described “outgoing” personality from public view. This winter alone he’s mused on the reasons for ASU’s early successes and recent struggles, his desire to change the Tucson-tilted balance of basketball power in his adopted home state, and the reforming national perception of the Sun Devils’ emerging program.

On Tuesday, he provided perspective on ASU’s recent blunders.

“If you look across the country, everybody is going through little slumps and taking a few L’s,” he said. “We were obviously going to cool down. You can’t stay hot the whole season.”

At the moment, Evans is the hot hand in the backcourt, with All-American candidate Tra Holder suffering through a mini-slump of his own since Evans’ resurgence. All part of the inevitable ebbs and flows of a college basketball season.

A half-decade in the game has taught Evans not to panic. Poise is the message he’s preaching now.

“Guys talk to each other, trust each other, believe in one another,” he said. “…We are just trying to get back to practicing hard, taking quality reps and not taking a play off, things like that. That’s how you get back to our winning streak.”