As a shot travels towards the basket, the Eagles’ 6-foot-6-inch junior center Evan Yates clears space for himself between Saginaw Valley State’s Jay Thames and Mike Schaaf. The Saginaw defenders are both bigger than Yates – Thames is 6-foot-9 and Schaaf is 6-foot-7 – yet they stand no chance to grab the rebound without fouling because Yates is an animal on the boards.

Yates sticks his rear into Thames’ midsection, and, as the ball clanks off the rim, he is already pushing off the ground with both feet, propelling his body toward the hoop and the ball. Schaaf, with a crew cut and a bushy red beard, looks more like a 37-year-old lumberjack/biker than a 20-year-old collegiate basketball player, stands no chance of getting to the ball before Yates, who raises both arms skyward and secures the orange sphere with two hands that threaten to engulf it.

Yates returns to the floor near the left block. Instead of taking the risk of getting his shot blocked while jumping straight into the slightly taller and much longer Schaaf, he calmly pump-fakes and carefully side-steps the bearded man with tribal tattoos on both biceps, taking one dribble before rising back up off the floor and easily laying the ball off the glass on the opposite side of the hoop for two hard-earned points.

So far this season, no team has found a way to stop Yates from making plays like this one, which happened Jan. 19 during the first half of a 72-52 victory over Saginaw Valley State. Yates finished the game with 25 points and 17 rebounds.

Coaches stomp and players scream, but nothing short of a statistical error or a sixth defender can deny Yates a double-double nearly every time he steps on the court. That has not always been the case, however. There was a time, as late as Yates’s junior year of high school, when his chances of playing college basketball were slim to none.

After playing for the junior varsity squad at Princeton High School in Cincinnati through his sophomore year, it finally looked as though Yates was going to get a chance to play at the start of his junior year.

“I was supposed to play varsity and then our head coach passed away,” Yates said. “It was tough on everybody.”

An assistant coach took over the program and Yates never got the playing time that he was promised, instead playing another year of junior varsity as a junior.

The next year, Yates was forced to make a difficult decision. His AAU coach, Robert Moman, had taken a job as the head coach at nearby Walnut Hills High School. He wanted Yates to transfer to the school and join him.

The team finished the 2008-09 season 17-4 and tied for first in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference. Yates was the star player. He averaged 20.9 points and 11.4 rebounds and was named conference co-player of the year.

Still, there were those who doubted Yates when it came to playing in college.

“They said I was an undersized forward, I was too slow, didn’t have an outside game, something I’m still working on,” Yates said. “Just things like that. I wouldn’t be able to rebound very well because I was undersized. I wasn’t very athletic.”

One person who did take notice was John Ellenwood, who was the head coach at Division III Thomas Moore College when Yates was coming out of high school. Yates visited the school, but decided that he would rather play at his father’s alma mater, Wilmington College.

Once again, fate intervened. Just as his AAU coach’s new job had opened a door for Yates, another door was opened when Ellenwood took the job as the head coach at Ashland.

“He called me and said he had a scholarship for me if I wanted to take the offer and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll definitely take it,'” Yates said.

As a freshman, Yates was eager to prove himself.

“The dumbest mistake I ever made was during his first game,” Ellenwood said. “I didn’t play him because I didn’t think he was ready to play. The second game of the year, I quickly realized that we needed more of a post presence. We were getting our butts kicked, and I put him in with seven minutes to go in the game.”

In those seven minutes against Mount Vernon Nazarene, Yates scored 13 points and had seven rebounds. He finished the 2009-10 season with averages of nine points and 4.7 rebounds per game, scoring a season-high 20 points against Rio Grande on Dec. 28.

Yates’s sophomore season was a breakout one. After coming into college at 260 pounds, he spent the summer of 2010 on a strict workout regimen while also playing in Cincinnati’s famed Deveroes Summer League. The league serves as an opportunity for talented players with ties to Cincinnati to get together and hone their skills during the offseason.

There, Yates got a chance to test himself against players such as the University of Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates and Xavier’s Kenny Freese and Jamel McLean.

The hard work paid off. Yates returned to Ashland leaner than ever and began to solidify his spot among the GLIAC’s elite big men. During the 2010-11 season, Yates averaged 13.9 points and 6.6 rebounds. He scored a new career high with 26 points against Tiffin in a 69-65 win on Jan. 13.

While the hard work has paid off, not all of it has been strenuous. Coaches and teammates are quick to point out Yates’s antics on and off the court, especially when he is with his roommate, junior guard David Harris. Like Yates, Harris is from the Cincinnati area.

“(Evan is) hilarious,” Ellenwood said. “Him and Dave Harris are just hilarious together. Those guys have a great sense of humor. He’s playing his best when he’s having fun out on the court.”

Harris recalled one time that Yates turned getting up for an early-morning workout into a dance party in their room.

“He got up at like seven in the morning and as soon as he wakes up he just turns on music and just starts full-out dancing,” Harris said. “I’m half-asleep and he wakes me up and he’s like, ‘Dave, are you up?!’ and he’s just screaming while he’s dancing. That’s probably one of the funniest moments we’ve had together.”

Yates always enjoys having a good laugh with his teammates, sometimes even while they are in practice.

Last year, assistant coach Gregg Collins coined a saying that he used to inspire leadership in then-sophomore guard Ronnie Steward. “Huddle ‘em up Ronnie, huddle ‘em up,” he would shout.

Yates would then imitate the veteran coach, often to waves of laughter from teammates and coaches alike.

“I’m a very spontaneous person,” Yates said. “I do strange stuff like that all the time. I just like to joke around. I’m expecting that whatever we are doing is going to be hard so I have to take my mind off of it and have fun. Itkeeps everyone else motivated to get the things that we have to get done, to get them done.”

This year, the numbers that Yates is putting up have him on a national stage. As of Tuesday, he is second in the country in rebounds per game (11.9) and double doubles (12) and tied for 12th in points per game (21). He leads the GLIAC in all three categories.

In Ashland’s second game of the year, Nov. 18 on the road against Central State (Ohio), Yates had 24 points and 20 rebounds in an 81-69 loss.

“I’ve never seen that before out of a player,” Ellenwood said of the 20-20 performance.

Five days later Yates had another monster game, scoring 31 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in a 108-95 victory over Point Park. In the Jan. 19 game against Saginaw Valley State, he was on pace for 30 points and 20 rebounds before he left the game with six minutes left in a blowout.

The numbers that show up on the stat sheets sometimes blow even Yates away.

“It does surprise me actually, to tell the truth,” he sad. “I’m like, ‘Wow, did I really do that?’ One thing that’s huge for me is rebounding. I love to rebound. Some games I feel like I only have, like, four or five rebounds and it turns out that I have 12 or 13.”

Ellenwood believes that the rebounding and scoring numbers that Yates is putting up could have him in the running for the National Player of the Year Award next season, if not this year. He said that Yates reminds him of last season’s Player of the Year, Justin Keenan from Ferris State.

“I think he’s going to be just as good, if not better, than Justin Keenan,” Ellenwood said.

Being recognized as the best player in Division II is certainly something Yates has thought about.

“I want to be the best player in the country, hands down, just that guy,” he said. “Just being the best player in the country and the best player I can be… I think my mom would start tearing up; she would be crying. My dad would be so proud. It would be great for me. I would honestly love it.”

The sky is the limit for Evan Yates. After college, he says he would love to try to play professional basketball overseas like his dad did. He wants to play basketball as long as possible and loves the idea of living in another country. If that doesn’t work out, he’ll have a bachelor’s degree in finance to fall back on.

Rebounding is a skill practiced by many and mastered by few. Either a player has it, or they don’t. Size is a lot smaller of a factor than one might think. It is more a matter of who really wants to put his body on the line every time down the court to try to give his team an extra possession or take one away from the opposition.

Flashy post players score, winners rebound. Evan Yates does both. And he’s really funny.