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http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/...l-success/

Great read about why Butler is so successful.......and why we should follow their model!

Quote:Yet the Bulldog’s success is more than just principles, but rather resides in the life blood of the very players who join the program and help perpetuate every positive thing the Butler name stands for. Butler’s Associate Head Coach, Matthew Graves, has been a part of the Bulldog basketball program for over two decades as both a player and a coach. Graves is the living embodiment of this very concept.

“We have talented players but even greater teammates. Everyone is consumed with embracing the core values our program while also making sure to enjoy the process of getting better everyday”, said Graves, adding, “Everyone involved with the program becomes firmly rooted by those values; it makes it easy for us to distinguish the type of player who shares our vision and goals.”

Anyone else thinking we should hire Graves to take over our program? He's learned from Thad Motta and Brad Stevens, what else could you possibly ask for? He even lead his team to victory over us in the first round back in 06-07 so he knows about our program and how tough we are.

What's not to like here??

Interesting that you select that quote out of the article. It promotes having good people at the University for a long time. One could agrue this is a reason to keep Coach Jim C as the top man. But with that being said, Graves would be a great pick for the job. Just have to pull him away, he might be waiting to take over Butler.

Graves is interesting, and I love The Butler Way. I'm surprised you do though ... They're all about system basketball and program over everything else, very similar to Blaine philosophically. Maybe I've read you wrong on that.

They recruit big time shooters. Obviously as others have mentioned before, they have a different talent pool out there in Indiana, but they recruit shooters and scorers and then teach them defense and rebounding.

Brad Stevens makes them tough by running the hardest practices of any team in the entire country.

But the point is, they recruit a guy like Dunham who is a 94 % ft shooter and a marksmen from downtown and then help turn him into a complete player. They recruit a Gordon Hayward or a Matt graves.

We recruited some projects, some under the radar guys and made them very solid players and skilled defensive players, but we NEVER had a pure shooter excel under Blaine. If anything, our shooters regressed quite a bit in Taylor's offense because he stressed defense and rebounding so much and refused to really work on the crummy offense for whatever reason.

I honestly believe if Batten played for another team, he could average between 15-20 a game, I honestly do. In Blaine's offense he was hot and cold constantly and can't average double figures.

We need a coach who recruits offensively talented players and then teaches them how to play defense too......like what Brad Stevens does at Butler.

That's why I think Graves, who learned from Thad Motta and Brad Stevens, would absolutely be the perfect hire for this University. He knows offense and he has that Butler toughness and pedigree. He was a lights out shooter for them and I promise he could teach guys like Batten, Clark and Bacote how to get the most out of their shooting ability!

Interestingly enough a keynote speaker at a conf I was at was John Miller, author of "Outstanding!: 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional." During his speech he actually brought up Brad Stevens of Butler specifically. Mentioned he has spoken with him and Brad actually used his book and methods/ideals to inspire and motivate his team after reading it.

I have the book and will give it the next head coach.

(02-08-2013 07:38 AM)finalcloud Wrote:  Interesting that you select that quote out of the article. It promotes having good people at the University for a long time. One could agrue this is a reason to keep Coach Jim C as the top man. But with that being said, Graves would be a great pick for the job. Just have to pull him away, he might be waiting to take over Butler.

If this was true, wouldn't he be waiting a long time? Brad Stevens is only 36 and has shown no signs that he's going anywhere.

(02-08-2013 09:00 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  If this was true, wouldn't he be waiting a long time? Brad Stevens is only 36 and has shown no signs that he's going anywhere.

My personal theory is that he goes to Duke. Eventually. In another 10 years when Krzyzewski finally retires. But that's OT so movin' on.

Stevens is the head coach of the #9 team in the country. Not sure why he would want to go anywhere.

Thought the word was that Brad was waiting for the IU job to open up. Guess that might take a while since Crean seems to have turned it around.

Stevens got a HUGE contract from Butler.

He has a contract until 2022 at over a million per year (and that will likely go up as he keeps winning especially if butler moves to the big east)

Brad Stevens isn't going anywhere!

http://www.insidehoops.com/blog/?p=5704

(02-08-2013 09:03 AM)Monarch_Pride Wrote:  

(02-08-2013 09:00 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  If this was true, wouldn't he be waiting a long time? Brad Stevens is only 36 and has shown no signs that he's going anywhere.

My personal theory is that he goes to Duke. Eventually. In another 10 years when Krzyzewski finally retires. But that's OT so movin' on.

Wojo or Collins is taking over Duke. Common knowledge. Both are associate head coaches and have been for a while and havent left for this very reason.

(02-08-2013 10:09 AM)SportsDoc757 Wrote:  

(02-08-2013 09:03 AM)Monarch_Pride Wrote:  

(02-08-2013 09:00 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  If this was true, wouldn't he be waiting a long time? Brad Stevens is only 36 and has shown no signs that he's going anywhere.

My personal theory is that he goes to Duke. Eventually. In another 10 years when Krzyzewski finally retires. But that's OT so movin' on.

Wojo or Collins is taking over Duke. Common knowledge. Both are associate head coaches and have been for a while and havent left for this very reason.

Had no clue, haven't paid any attention to them. Stevens and Duke just seem like they would be a natural fit to me. Smart, elite guy for a smart boy school and elite basketball program.

One of the main jobs of assistance coaches is the scouting report and Graves did a super job with Butler's against us in the NCAA. Talking to Carter after the game, the team wasn't well prepared. From our scouting report, ODU only had to do what we've been doing all year. Butler's scouting reports are very detail and very high tech. Butler did to us what, we had done to teams all year, they beat us at our own game. Mike Graves is Butler to the core, doesn't have ties to the area. So I don't think he's our guy to go after, but he is a good candidate.

I just don't see ties to this area as THAT important. Blaine had no ties and he did pretty well.

If you can coach you can coach and players will see that, recognize it and want to come play for you regardless.

FWIW, Graves has been my number one for nearly 2 months with Boals not far behind. I'd love to see Graves bring Ronald Nored with him, a future rising star in his own right.

(02-08-2013 06:20 PM)Razor Ramon Monarch Wrote:  I just don't see ties to this area as THAT important. Blaine had no ties and he did pretty well.

If you can coach you can coach and players will see that, recognize it and want to come play for you regardless.

The main importance I can see would be to have contacts who can give you heads up on guys to take a closer look at, or say, to be in the favor of the almighty Boo Williams. Otherwise, I agree completely. New relationships can and will be formed on the job.

Boo Williams is great, but he only has so much real control over his players.

If a kid had a scholarship to duke or odu, even if boo says "go to odu", what do you think the odds of us landing that kid are?

We probably won't land any of Boo's top recruits, but I guess we could start landing some of his better mid level guys.

I just hope we don't sacrifice good coaching for "boo loves this guy" because all the talent in the world won't matter if you have a crappy coach who has his team unprepared to play at the highest level come March.