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Call Brad Stevens a quick learner. In just seven years, he went from a promising business career to one of the most successful head coaching starts in the history of the NCAA Division I!
In his debut season, Stevens guided Butler to a school- and Horizon League-record 30-4 mark. The Bulldogs captured the Great Alaska Shootout, won a second consecutive Wooden Tradition trophy, and wrapped up Horizon League regular season and tournament championships. Butler won a first-round NCAA Tournament game, before falling in overtime to #5 Tennessee in the second round. The Bulldogs were ranked in the “Top 25” of the A. P. and ESPN/USA Today national polls for a school- and league-record 19 consecutive weeks, including a record three weeks in the “Top 10.” Butler set school- and league-records for total wins (30) and regular season wins (27) and tied the league-record for league wins (16).
Only three coaches in NCAA Division I history - Bill Guthridge, North Carolina (34), Bill Hodges, Indiana State (33) and Jamie Dixon, Pittsburgh (31) - posted more first-year wins than Stevens. And the 31-year-old Butler coach became the third-youngest Division I coach to guide his team to 30 wins - the youngest in more than half a century!
Stevens became the first men’s basketball coach in Butler history to lead the Bulldogs to 30 wins, and he broke the previous 34-game Butler coaching record (28-6), shared by three coaches. He moved into seventh place on Butler’s all-time list for coaching victories after just one season.
His second season produced perhaps an even more remarkable record! He guided a Butler team picked fifth in the Horizon League, with no seniors and just one returning starter, to 26 wins, a “Top 25” national ranking, a second consecutive Horizon League regular season championship and another trip to the NCAA Tournament. He recorded his 50th career win faster than any other coach in Butler men’s basketball history, and only one coach in NCAA Division I history - Bill Guthridge of North Carolina (58-14, 1998-99) - can boast more wins in his first two seasons! Stevens was the mid-season recipient of the Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award, and he was cited as the Horizon League Coach of the Year.
Stevens was introduced as the new men’s basketball head coach at Butler University on April 4, 2007, just three days after his former boss, Todd Lickliter, was named head coach at the University of Iowa. Stevens became the third consecutive former Butler assistant coach to be named head coach of the Bulldogs, and he served under the previous two - Thad Matta and Lickliter.
Stevens worked with Lickliter for six seasons, 2001-07. During his tenure as an assistant coach with the Bulldogs, Butler compiled a 131-61 record, won three Horizon League regular season championships and made four trips to postseason tournament play. In 2006-07, Butler compiled a school-record 29-7 season and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs won the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden in New York, and the team was ranked in the “Top 25” of both the Associated Press (A.P. ) and ESPN/USA Today national polls for a school and league record 16 consecutive weeks.
Stevens, who left a position as a marketing associate at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis in June of 2000 to pursue a career in basketball coaching, joined the Bulldogs’ staff in 2000-01 as coordinator of basketball operations under head coach Thad Matta. He was offered a full-time assistant coaching position by Lickliter one year later.
Prior to joining the Bulldogs’ staff, Stevens served as a volunteer basketball coach at Carmel High School, working with coach Pete Smith. He further served as an assistant coach for the 17-year-old Municipal Gardens AAU team, helping the squad to a 12th place finish in the national tournament.
Stevens completed a stellar high school basketball career in 1995 as the all-time basketball scoring leader at Zionsville High School in Indiana. During his prep career, he set team all-time records for three-point field goals and assists. He went on to earn all-conference and academic all-conference honors as a four-year member of the basketball team at DePauw University. He served as a team captain and received the squad’s “Coaches Award” in 1998-99.
Stevens earned a B.A. degree in economics from DePauw in
1999. He and his wife, Tracy, have two children, son Brady
and newborn daughter Kinsley.
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