More on Coach Stevens
Butler is keeping its top dawg
Coach has plenty of options, but it's nice to see that he didn't just take the money and run
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100409/SPORTS15/4090367/Kravitz-Butler-coach-decides-no-place-like-home
In the end, the University of Oregon didn't get its man. And yet, for Pat Kilkenny, the man leading the Ducks' basketball coaching search, the disappointment was tempered by his growing admiration for Butler coach Brad Stevens.
"One of the reasons he's a special young man is his loyalty," Kilkenny said Thursday, having returned to Eugene from Indianapolis on Wednesday. "He has a very strong connection to Butler."
Kilkenny, the former Oregon athletic director, spoke with Stevens three times by telephone Tuesday, the day after the national title game. But he never believed he was close to getting Stevens. There was never a solid offer, but Kilkenny made it clear he wanted Stevens to listen to Oregon's pitch.
"He was our guy," Kilkenny said. "But I always felt like it was an uphill battle. We were obviously very interested in him, but we needed to sense that he was interested in us, too. I'm not sure that was there."
After a month of feel-good stories, here's a feel-even-better story. A college coach didn't take the money and run. That's not to say Stevens didn't engineer a very comfortable raise out of this; if Butler hadn't stepped up and given him a fiscal reason to stay, he would have been on a plane to Eugene, contemplating an offer of $2 million to $3 million per year.
Suffice to say, he took less money to stick around.
Now, the 12-year contract he and the school agreed to Thursday doesn't mean he's going to remain on the Hinkle Fieldhouse sideline for all of those 12 years. In fact, I'd bet a dinner at Fleming's that he won't still be at Butler in 2022. All contracts have buyout clauses. Nothing is iron-clad. If a suitor wants a coach badly enough, it will find the money to buy his way out. It would be nice to think that Stevens will continue to turn Butler into a kind of Georgetown or Duke, but over time, the money and the chance to coach in a marquee conference will be impossible to ignore.
At some point, he's going to jump, and nobody can blame him for that.
I hesitate to mention this, but it's out there: What if coach Mike Brey continues to be up-and-down at Notre Dame? How perfect a fit would Stevens be there? And how about coach Tom Crean at IU? Some of us think he's going to fix that mess if he's given enough time, but if it doesn't work out, how would Stevens look at Assembly Hall?
In life, it's good to have options, and Stevens has plenty.
He's only 33, so he understood he didn't have to jump at the first mega-dollar offer thrown his way.
He's at a school where winning is a given; it's not like this was some lightning-in-a-bottle scenario and five years from now, he's going to be under .500. These opportunities will be available, and they will remain available for a long time.
We are talking here about one of the brightest young coaches in the game, a guy who has a chance to chase Bob Knight's all-time victories record.
He will be a desirable commodity for as long as he blows a whistle.
In the end, this was the right move -- or nonmove -- at the right time.
True, there was a lot to recommend Oregon: a big-conference affiliation, lots of money, a brand-new arena and all the right connections. Plus, the Ducks play in a college town where they are everybody's first priority. Here in Indy, Butler doesn't even rate above IU and Purdue, and probably never will.
"We would have loved to have had the chance to tell him our story," Kilkenny said. "But it never got to that point."
The flip side at Oregon is, Stevens would be working in foreign territory, dealing with top-rung recruits whose priorities aren't the same as the kids he gets at Butler. He has something special at Butler, something different. Bobby Fong, Butler's president, shared a conversation he recently had with a Butler fan, who told him, "We're not just rooting for the basketball team; we're rooting for our friends." Would Stevens have that at Oregon?
Now the momentum continues at Butler. Stevens is back, and that can only help Gordon Hayward's decision to return for his junior season. Or let's say this: It won't hurt. If Stevens was gone, so was Hayward, or so I would imagine.
And there's a terrific freshman class coming in, including Manual's Chrishawn Hopkins, a player who has gotten raves from everybody who has played with him and seen him.
"We had our eye on (Stevens) for a long time,'' Kilkenny said. "It's disappointing, but I understand. Butler is keeping a very special young coach.''
Exactly.
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So there you have it.
Now, I don't remember if I made this clear when I posted the ButlerSports.com article yesterday ( He's staying! YAY!), but I DO realize that this DOESN'T mean he will stay at BU for the whole twelve years. Really, the only promise is that he will still be a Bulldog NEXT season. The twelve year contract makes buyout by another program more difficult, though as I said yesterday, there are a lot of schools out there that can afford a lot more than Butler.
However, Brad did choose to stay at Butler for less pay than moving to Oregon, something which Kilkenny praised in the above article. So there is at least some amount of loyalty there, and that's a good thing. Or does Stevens have another plan? Maybe?
Who knows what will happen. It's anybody's guess.
My opinion? He's not going to stay at Butler forever, but I'm willing to bet that he stays in Indiana. IU? Notre Dame? Pacers? As the article states, there are options here.
But we'll worry about that after next season.
Right now, we're still worrying about Gordon Hayward...
Coach has plenty of options, but it's nice to see that he didn't just take the money and run
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100409/SPORTS15/4090367/Kravitz-Butler-coach-decides-no-place-like-home
In the end, the University of Oregon didn't get its man. And yet, for Pat Kilkenny, the man leading the Ducks' basketball coaching search, the disappointment was tempered by his growing admiration for Butler coach Brad Stevens.
"One of the reasons he's a special young man is his loyalty," Kilkenny said Thursday, having returned to Eugene from Indianapolis on Wednesday. "He has a very strong connection to Butler."
Kilkenny, the former Oregon athletic director, spoke with Stevens three times by telephone Tuesday, the day after the national title game. But he never believed he was close to getting Stevens. There was never a solid offer, but Kilkenny made it clear he wanted Stevens to listen to Oregon's pitch.
"He was our guy," Kilkenny said. "But I always felt like it was an uphill battle. We were obviously very interested in him, but we needed to sense that he was interested in us, too. I'm not sure that was there."
After a month of feel-good stories, here's a feel-even-better story. A college coach didn't take the money and run. That's not to say Stevens didn't engineer a very comfortable raise out of this; if Butler hadn't stepped up and given him a fiscal reason to stay, he would have been on a plane to Eugene, contemplating an offer of $2 million to $3 million per year.
Suffice to say, he took less money to stick around.
Now, the 12-year contract he and the school agreed to Thursday doesn't mean he's going to remain on the Hinkle Fieldhouse sideline for all of those 12 years. In fact, I'd bet a dinner at Fleming's that he won't still be at Butler in 2022. All contracts have buyout clauses. Nothing is iron-clad. If a suitor wants a coach badly enough, it will find the money to buy his way out. It would be nice to think that Stevens will continue to turn Butler into a kind of Georgetown or Duke, but over time, the money and the chance to coach in a marquee conference will be impossible to ignore.
At some point, he's going to jump, and nobody can blame him for that.
I hesitate to mention this, but it's out there: What if coach Mike Brey continues to be up-and-down at Notre Dame? How perfect a fit would Stevens be there? And how about coach Tom Crean at IU? Some of us think he's going to fix that mess if he's given enough time, but if it doesn't work out, how would Stevens look at Assembly Hall?
In life, it's good to have options, and Stevens has plenty.
He's only 33, so he understood he didn't have to jump at the first mega-dollar offer thrown his way.
He's at a school where winning is a given; it's not like this was some lightning-in-a-bottle scenario and five years from now, he's going to be under .500. These opportunities will be available, and they will remain available for a long time.
We are talking here about one of the brightest young coaches in the game, a guy who has a chance to chase Bob Knight's all-time victories record.
He will be a desirable commodity for as long as he blows a whistle.
In the end, this was the right move -- or nonmove -- at the right time.
True, there was a lot to recommend Oregon: a big-conference affiliation, lots of money, a brand-new arena and all the right connections. Plus, the Ducks play in a college town where they are everybody's first priority. Here in Indy, Butler doesn't even rate above IU and Purdue, and probably never will.
"We would have loved to have had the chance to tell him our story," Kilkenny said. "But it never got to that point."
The flip side at Oregon is, Stevens would be working in foreign territory, dealing with top-rung recruits whose priorities aren't the same as the kids he gets at Butler. He has something special at Butler, something different. Bobby Fong, Butler's president, shared a conversation he recently had with a Butler fan, who told him, "We're not just rooting for the basketball team; we're rooting for our friends." Would Stevens have that at Oregon?
Now the momentum continues at Butler. Stevens is back, and that can only help Gordon Hayward's decision to return for his junior season. Or let's say this: It won't hurt. If Stevens was gone, so was Hayward, or so I would imagine.
And there's a terrific freshman class coming in, including Manual's Chrishawn Hopkins, a player who has gotten raves from everybody who has played with him and seen him.
"We had our eye on (Stevens) for a long time,'' Kilkenny said. "It's disappointing, but I understand. Butler is keeping a very special young coach.''
Exactly.
-------------------------------------
So there you have it.
Now, I don't remember if I made this clear when I posted the ButlerSports.com article yesterday ( He's staying! YAY!), but I DO realize that this DOESN'T mean he will stay at BU for the whole twelve years. Really, the only promise is that he will still be a Bulldog NEXT season. The twelve year contract makes buyout by another program more difficult, though as I said yesterday, there are a lot of schools out there that can afford a lot more than Butler.
However, Brad did choose to stay at Butler for less pay than moving to Oregon, something which Kilkenny praised in the above article. So there is at least some amount of loyalty there, and that's a good thing. Or does Stevens have another plan? Maybe?
Who knows what will happen. It's anybody's guess.
My opinion? He's not going to stay at Butler forever, but I'm willing to bet that he stays in Indiana. IU? Notre Dame? Pacers? As the article states, there are options here.
But we'll worry about that after next season.
Right now, we're still worrying about Gordon Hayward...