Chris Holtmann joins Butler staff as an assistant

There are some head coaches that would be completely against taking another job and dropping down to being an assistant coach. This isn't the case with Butler's newest assistant coach, Chris Holtmann.

Holtmann joined Brandon Miller's staff in mid July to complete the coaching staff. The past three seasons, Holtmann was the head coach at Division I Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

The 41 year-old Holtmann took the Runnin' Bulldogs under his wing and rebuilt them in the past three seasons. The season before his takeover at the helm, GWU managed just eight wins in the 2009-10 campaign. Last season was a complete change with winning a Gardner-Webb school record at the Division I level of 21 wins. That got GW into the post-season CollegeInsider.com tournament this past March.

Holtmann was named the Big South Conference's Coach of the Year, leading Gardner-Webb to winning 10 of their final 11 regular season games.

Prior to his three-year stint at Gardner-Webb, Holtmann was an assistant at Ohio University for current Illinois head coach John Groce. To his credit, he was on Groce's staff when the 14-seed Bobcats shocked 3-seeded Georgetown in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Before his time with Groce, Holtmann was an assistant at Gardner-Webb, four of those years as the Associate Head Coach.

Holtmann played his college basketball at Taylor University, where he became an NAIA All-American. As a guard for the Trojans, he led 25-9 Taylor to the #1 ranking and a spot in the NAIA National Tournament in the 1993-94 season.

Earning his psychology degree in 1994 from Taylor, he also obtained his Master's degree in athletics administration from Ball State University in 2000.

The Butler Bulldog family proudly welcomes Chris Holtmann and his family to Indianapolis and Butler University.