INDIANAPOLIS -- Brad Stevens looks like just another Butler
player. He's tall, slender, has short hair and a teenager's face.
Instead of jogging onto the court at Hinkle Fieldhouse in a blue
or white uniform, however, Stevens arrives wearing a spotless suit
and a conservative tie. Only then do people realize the 31-year-old
Stevens actually coaches the Bulldogs.
"Some people still call him Lil' Brad in Zionsville," point
guard Mike Green joked, referring to Stevens' hometown in suburban
Indianapolis.
Well, Lil' Brad has grown up and hit it big.
A former Indiana high school star who played college ball at
DePauw, Stvens became the nation's third-youngest coach in April
when Todd Lickliter departed for Iowa.
Truth is, Stevens has changed little at Butler. Like his
predecessors Barry Collier, Thad Matta and Lickliter, Stevens
relies on the same deliberate offense, harassing defense and
careful ball-handlers who have created havoc for big-name opponents
for years.
The results haven't changed much, either. Stevens has matched
the Bulldogs' best start in school history at 17-2 and reached No.
12 in the Top 25 before dropping to No. 15 this week after a loss
at Cleveland State. Butler has been ranked all but one week this
season and if the Bulldogs keep winning, they could even surpass
the school's highest ranking ever (No. 10 in February) before
season's end.
Among Stevens' early credits are a Great Alaska Shootout
championship, beating Bob Knight and five schools from the nation's
traditional power conferences -- Michigan and Ohio State of the Big
Ten; Florida State and Virginia Tech of the ACC; and Texas Tech of
the Big 12. And the Bulldogs have already strung together two
eight-game winning streaks despite playing only 6-of-18 games at
home.
The lone flaws were a 43-42 loss at Wright State, the defending
Horizon League tournament champion which beat Butler twice on its
home court last season, and last week's 56-52 setback at Cleveland
State, which is unbeaten in conference play. Butler is 6-2 in the
Horizon.
At first glance, it appears the kid coach can do almost nothing
wrong. Stevens disagrees.
"Sure, I've made mistakes and sometimes guys still make you
look good," he said, cracking a rare smile. "It's not a perfect
game on the floor, and it's not a perfect game off the floor, so
you try to limit your mistakes. I've learned and watched and have
always been good with the intricacies of the game."
Those were precisely the traits that convinced Collier, now the
Butler athletic director, to take a chance on the fresh-faced
Stevens, who turned 31 in October.
With expectations soaring after last season's NCAA regional
semifinals appearance, a nucleus of five returning seniors and a
reputation as one of the nation's top mid-major programs over the
past decade, Collier could have chased someone with a bigger name,
more experience or a stronger resume.
That's never been the Butler way.
Like Lickliter and Matta, Stevens joined the Bulldogs program as
director of basketball operations, working his way through the
ranks. He did scheduling, recruited players, instructed them,
watched film with them and developed a rapport that drew the
attention of Collier, the former Nebraska coach.
"I don't know that he can play Nintendo," Collier joked. "But
he impressed me with his poise and intelligence and communication
skills. He's a gifted speaker, and I liked his interaction with
players in practice and the way he responded in the heat of the
moment."
The combination has helped Stevens make winning look easy.
He's young enough to bond with players, old enough to know he
can't be their best friend, smart enough to correct their
imperfections and just unconventional enough to pull a motivational
ploy out of ... a trash can?
"The funniest thing I remember was against Ohio State, we were
1-of-16 on 3-pointers at halftime," Green said. "So he balled up
a bunch of little papers and made us shoot them into a trash can.
Everybody laughed, and it was a good thing because we were down at
the time."
Butler responded by erasing a 10-point halftime deficit and
wound up routing Matta's Buckeyes 65-46.
It could have been so much tougher.
Stevens started his professional career as a marketing associate
with Eli Lilly, an Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company,
before taking a volunteer coaching position at Carmel High School,
just north of Indianapolis.
In 2000-01, he accepted the basketball operations job at Butler
and became a full-fledged assistant one year later.
Then he worked in virtual anonymity under Lickliter as the
Bulldogs reached the NCAA regional semis twice.
Now the question is how quickly can Stevens become a household
name?
"He's halfway through his first season, so I think history will
bear that out," Collier said. "What counts to me is that he has a
sense of what's most important and that's mentoring players and the
model of a student-athlete."
Players see it another way.
"It's probably a lot easier to take advice from someone you
think has been through it all because it's easier to see yourself
in his shoes," said shooting guard A.J. Graves, the MVP of last
season's Preseason NIT.
This year's Bulldogs were projected to be even better than last
year's team, which gave two-time national champion Florida its
closest game in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs lost 65-57.
Rather than feel pressure, though, Stevens focused on finding
the right mix between a team that opened the season with five
senior starters and nine relatively untested freshman and
sophomores.
As with everything else, Stevens has found a way to make it
work, even if he appears better suited to taking on his players in
a 3-point contest than teaching them the nuances of the game.
"I don't know (if being young) is an advantage, but I hope
so," he said. "I think we relate well to the kids, and I think
Todd related really well to the kids. But I've only been away from
the game as a player about nine years, so I know what they're going
through and I think they understand that."