Brad Stevens' career path to coaching the Butler Bulldogs is typical among his peers. A high school basketball star, he later played college basketball for the mighty D-3 Depauw University Tigers. He graduated in 1999 with an economics degree before entering the work force. He was only at his job at Eli Lilly for one year before quitting, though, choosing to volunteer in Butler's basketball offices instead in 2000. Stevens was given a full-time job as coordinator of basketball operations and held that position for one season before becoming an assistant coach for six. In 2007, Stevens took the helm at Butler at the ripe age of 30.
OK, so maybe not that typical - in fact, far from it. That's one of the reasons why I am rooting for Butler to win the NCAA Tournament. Stevens is 33 years old, but he looks 23. His three assistants all graduated college within one year of him, and his coordinator of basketball ops is a 2003 Butler grad. The Bulldogs roster is comprised of 15 players, 10 from the state of Indiana. With a young coaching staff and a homegrown team playing in the Final Four six miles from its Indianapolis campus, how can I not pull for Butler to win it all?
I watched a pregame interview Saturday during which Stevens and Kansas State coach Frank Martin were sitting side by side to talk about the Elite Eight game they would play against each other in mere hours. That's not an easy thing to do - especially for Stevens, considering how intimidating Martin looks - but he spoke with the maturity of a coach that had been around the game for decades. Stevens, 10 years Martin's junior, had his Bulldogs prepared for their matchup against the Wildcats - by most spreads the four-point favorite - and Butler upset Kansas State 63-56 to advance to the Final Four back home.
The game ended as I had hoped ... particularly because my bracket was shot anyway. Think of the difference in coaching styles like this: Frank Martin is to Brad Stevens as Dave Leitao is to Tony Bennett. Martin and Leitao are stern-faced, angry-looking screamers who yell a whole lot during the games, and I can only imagine what they're like before and after games in the locker room. Sometimes that strategy works - Martin made it to the Elite Eight - and sometimes it doesn't (see: Leitao's "resigning" from Virginia). Either way, I don't like it.
Meanwhile, Stevens and Bennett are generally calm on the bench, focusing more on coaching than berating, and by almost all accounts, their players like that style. I probably like Stevens so much because he reminds me a lot of Bennett - a young, passionate, defensive-minded coach who works well with his players. Just as I believe Bennett is on his way to building a strong program at Virginia, I can see Stevens coaching at Butler for the next 20 years. Stevens was named Horizon League Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season, and I feel pretty certain he will win that award again in the future.
I know it's somewhat strange to be rooting for a team to win because of its coach, and it's especially weird because I'm picking Stevens against three storied college coaches - Michigan State's Tom Izzo, West Virginia's Bob Huggins and of course, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski began coaching at the collegiate level in 1974 at Indiana, Huggins in 1977 at West Virginia and Izzo in 1979 at Northern Michigan. Each has been coaching almost as long as Stevens has been breathing, and yet, I am pulling for him to take down these three greats. And perhaps Stevens' unconventional career path will help him defy these basketball demigods Saturday.
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