Jacob Evans vs. Rob Gray: A Man Bun Examination

Wednesday night features a pretty big matchup in the American Athletic Conference. Yes, there’s the actually basketball game between the No. 8 Cincinnati Bearcats and the Houston Cougars, but there is another contest being held, too. Perhaps it’s one that only I am aware of. Regardless, the battle between the Bearcats and Cougars is not just one with American Athletic Conference title implications, its one with implications about hairstyles in the year 2018.

As many of you know, Cincinnati’s own Jacob Evans has worn a number of hair styles during his career. Below is the progression.

As a freshman, Evans rocked a high-top fade. An understated classic.

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During the 2016-17 season, Evans turned toward the short dreads look, yet again pulling it off with aplomb.

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Now a junior, Evans has let his hair grow out even further and started sporting a glorious man bun.

Evans’ man bun is not your average variety man bun. It features a great fade on the edges and allows his locks to flow down a bit. If you want to argue its not a man bun, that’s fine, but then you’re just diving into semantics and semantics are for the birds. The 6’6” junior has been wearing his hair in such a fashion all season. With how perfectly he has pulled it off, there were bound to be others.

That brings us to Rob Gray. Houston’s best player is scoring 18.7 points per game and is a wonderful magician with the basketball. He is also now putting his hair up. When the Bearcats last ran in with Cougars, Gray was sporting the following look.

In that game, played on March 2, 2017, the Bearcats prevailed 65-47. Gray scored a game-high 17 points in the loss while Evans netted seven points for the winning side.

Gray now has a more crisp style going, but it remains to be seen if that will change the outcome on the floor.

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We’ve now seen what each player has to offer, so I’ll turn to the audience to give us a winner. For my money, its Evans. Gray’s is the classic man bun, one you would expect to see on that guy at the indie coffee shop that has the good coffee. But Evans has more style and personality to it, and for that reason (plus the fact that he’s the Bearcat in this equation), my vote is with him.