For the second time this year, Lee Evans’ season is over.

Of course, the first time it was over was before it started, way back on April 20, that wretched date. Not much good happens on April 20. Hitler’s birthday. Columbine. Not much good at all.

This time, there was no gut-wrenching stop, no sickening pop, no sight of UW’s football season lying limp on the Camp Randall turf.

Just an announcement.

Unfortunately, the news was not that Evans would be back for an old-fashioned wideout duel with Chuck Rogers this weekend.

“First, let me say that Lee this past week, in consultations with his doctors on Friday, decided it was in his best interest not to play this season,” was what Alvarez slapped the crowd of reporters with Monday.

A disappointment, surely, especially after everyone penciled in the flanker’s return for Oct. 5 against Penn State. But as the weeks, and the chances to lead the Badgers into Big Ten contention, passed, Evans’ return seemed increasingly unlikely.

Now it’s official. The only question now is whether or not Evans, who brightened the collective mood of an entire campus when he opted to return to UW for his senior season, will provide an encore performance and skip the NFL draft for the second year in a row.

Here’s how it is. After Evans’ record-setting, nearly Biletnikoff-worthy season in 2001, his draft stock was as high as any UW underclassman’s in recent memory.

The scouts saw his speed, as he was clocked at under 4.3. They saw his playmaking ability, evidenced by nine touchdowns and a 20.6-yards-per-catch average. They saw his flawless hands, and despite standing only 5-foot-11, they saw his muscular, near-200 pound build and drooled.

They also saw him go down in an excruciating heap. And now they won’t see him on the field this season, and they’ll wonder.

Any injury puts doubts in the minds of scouts. For a knee injury, especially to a skilled player, those doubts are multiplied tenfold. Will he still have the burst, the explosiveness, the ability to break away or to make hard cuts? Will he be affected mentally, constantly questioning his strength or health or ability to avoid yet another injury? And, of course, the big question: Will he be the same player?

Evans had three options for proving to the scouts that he is the same player who set the Big Ten receiving record last season: 1) return for a few games this season and perform at the same level, 2) prove at the NFL combine that his knee is strong and the speed is still there, or 3) redshirt and play out his final year of eligibility in 2003, completely healthy and recovered from the surgery.

Well, option one is out. It’s down to two.

Evans could rest his knee, which has been swelling up and causing him some pain after he runs, and hit up the combine. Even though Evans ran that 4.3 or whatever last season, it’s never been about the speed with him. Sure, he’s fast, but it is his remarkably instinctual receiving skills that set him apart.

His ability to judge the ball in the air and adjust accordingly without tipping off his defender is unparalleled. It probably wouldn’t have mattered if Anthony Davis were throwing him the ball last season. He just finds the ball, wherever it is, goes up there and gets it.

But no one gets drafted on instincts alone — not in these days when Donte’ Stallworth is the first receiver taken in the draft because he ran a 4.2 at the combine. Although Evans’ abilities are evident, they’re essentially worthless to NFL teams without the wheels.

Even established wide outs dropped in the draft last season after poor 40 times at the combine. LSU’s Biletnikoff winner Josh Reed and Pittsburgh’s Antonio Bryant were both first-round picks, sure things. Both dropped to the second round due to “slow” (read: still ridiculously fast) 40 times.

So Evans could take a tremendous gamble, declare for the draft and pray the knee holds up at the combine and the explosion hasn’t evaporated.

Or he could screw the numbers, the stopwatches, the tenths of hundredths of seconds, and show the NFL he can play where it matters most and where his skills are most apparent — on the field.

With his resume, Evans knows it would have taken him only two or three solid games this season, and a solid combine, to restore the scouts’ confidence in him. With this in mind, and with five games remaining for UW, it seems a comeback, at any time this season, would not have been ruled out.

Alvarez’s announcement seems to indicate that Evans is scrapping this season while looking forward to the next. Why else rule out a comeback with five games left? Alvarez insisted it wasn’t the Badgers’ 0-3 Big Ten record. This writer thinks a redshirt, and another full season to silence the doubters, may be in the works.

Another point: Evans didn’t stay in Madison to raise his draft stock, which was plenty high. He stayed because he loves the city, loves the team and the program and would have loved to help UW to a successful season. He proved his dedication by patrolling the sidelines and helping the young receivers in a selfless fashion, never mentioning a word about his knee. Jonathan Orr said he never heard Evans complain once all season about not playing.

With a full season in red, a typical Lee Evans season in red, he’s right back where he belongs — up toward the top of the draft board. There’s no better way to erase doubts than to replace them with astounding images of playmaking and success. Evans proved last season that he can carry a team on two healthy knees. Now he’s got to prove to the NFL that he can do it on a surgically repaired one.