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.   

Butler to play in 2013 Old Spice Classic

The Butler Bulldogs keep moving on up in the college basketball world. Getting invited to play in early season tournaments is becoming something they're getting used to these days.

Butler will take part in the three-day, eight-team 2013 Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Florida at the HP Fieldhouse at ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex during Thanksgiving weekend. 

The Bulldogs will first face the Washington State Cougars around 2:30 on Thursday, November 28 in the second game of the day. Purdue will play Oklahoma State in the first game of the Old Spice Classic at noon. Games three and four of the day will feature Memphis vs. Siena at 6:30 p.m. and LSU against Saint Joseph's around 9:00 p.m. for the night cap. 

Friday's semifinal and consolation matchups is where things will get a little interesting. Below is the schedule and how the three days lay out.

Thursday, November 28th

Purdue vs. Oklahoma State noon

Butler vs. Washington State 2:30 p.m.

Memphis vs. Siena 6:30 p.m.

LSU vs. Saint Joseph's 9 p.m.


Friday, November 29th
Consolation game #1, 11 a.m.
Semifinal game #1, 1:30 p.m.
Semifinal game #2, 5:30 p.m.
Consolation game #2, 8 p.m.

Sunday, December 1st
Fifth Place game, Noon
Third Place game, 2 p.m.
Seventh Place game, 5 p.m.
Championship game, 7:30 p.m.

Head coach Brandon Miller couldn't be happier about the position he's in at the helm of Butler basketball. Roosevelt Jones, Khyle Marshall and Alex Barlow all return to the starting lineup, along with Kellen Dunham, Kameron Woods and Erik Fromm who all have a lot of experience and could break into the starting five.

Last season, the Bulldogs finished 27-9 and graduated just three players, but have a lot of offense to replace with those three being Rotnei Clarke, Andrew Smith and Chase Stigall. A new conference for the third year in a row, Butler joins the Big East and that should get them that much more attention, not to mention playing in tournaments, such as the Old Spice Classic.

Miller keeps two Butler assistants on staff

Taking over as head coach of the storied men's basketball program at Butler, looks to be an extremely tough task for Brandon Miller, especially filling the shoes that Brad Stevens wore so well before him. Keeping two of the assistants from Stevens' staff might just be a great move on the part of Miller as he transitions into being the head coach at Butler.

Current Butler assistant coaches Terry Johnson and Michael Lewis will continue their coaching days on the sidelines at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Head Coach Brandon Miller has decided that he will keep the two assistants as part of his staff.

Johnson is a 1992 Anderson (IN) High School grad, where he was a three-sport athlete. He continued his basketball and baseball careers at Lincoln Trail Junior College (IL) from 1992-94. TJ then transferred to Lamar University (TX) to play Division I basketball, where he led the Cardinals' basketball team in assists and steals from 1994-96. Terry finished his bachelor's degree at IPFW in 1998 and earned his Masters in Sports Administration from Western Kentucky University in 2011.

Following his playing days, Johnson became an assistant at IPFW (1997-99), Indiana Tech (1999-2001), Lincoln Trail JC (2001-03) and Auburn (2003-04) before his arrival in Indianapolis.

Terry Johnson began his timeline at Butler as the director of basketball operations for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. Since 2007, Johnson has been an assistant coach under Brad Stevens during his head coaching tenure and starts his 9th year at Butler this winter.

Michael Lewis is a 1996 Jasper (IN) grad that went on and had a stellar career at Indiana University from 1996-2000. Scoring 2,138 points in his prep career, Lewis climbed to 13th on the all-time scoring list in Indiana history. He managed to make the Indiana All-Star squad and was named Indiana's Gatorade Player of the Year in 1996. Lewis became the all-time assists leader in IU history with 545 during his four-year career.

After college, Lewis played in the USBL for the Florida Seadragons (2000-01), where he was an all-star in 2000. He came home to the Hoosier state in 2001 and played with the Fort Wayne Fury in the CBA. Michael also spent some time playing European basketball in Belgium before joining the coaching ranks.

Lewis got his first coaching experience at the D-I level at Stephen F. Austin in Texas during the 2004-05 season. After that, he moved north to the bench at Eastern Illinois (2005-11), where he made a lot of recruiting moves for EIU. Brad Stevens brought Lewis onto his staff after the 2010-11 season and Michael will enter his 3rd season on the Butler Bulldog bench.

Brandon Miller promoted as new Butler head coach

It didn't take long for Butler University's athletics director Barry Collier to make his decision on who will replace Brad Stevens as head coach. Stevens was announced as the new head coach of the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, completely shocking the college basketball and world of sports with his decision.

Former Bulldog guard Brandon Miller has officially been promoted and
named the next men's head basketball coach of the Butler Bulldogs as of today, July 6th, at a mid-afternoon press conference at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Miller played a key role as a starting guard and was the leading scorer (11.9 points) on a 27-6 Butler squad that made a magical NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16 in 2003.

Following graduation at Butler, Miller joined former Butler head coach Thad Matta at Xavier during the 2003-04 season, starting out as the Musketeers' video intern. Two years later, he was brought on Matta's staff at Ohio State for the next six seasons from 2006-2012 as an assistant coach (3 years), director of basketball operations (2 years) and video coordinator (one year). While on Matta's staff, the Buckeyes grabbed four Big Ten crowns, made three Sweet 16's and a trip to the 2007 national championship game.

Soon after Butler's exit last season of the NCAA Tournament's third-round, Miller was brought in to be a part of Brad Stevens' staff as an assistant coach. He got his first opportunity to coach under Stevens during the 2007-08 season, when the Bulldogs finished with a remarkable 30-4 record.

 He spent the 2012-13 season as a special assistant at Illinois to head coach John Groce before accepting an assistant coaching position at Butler in April.

As a player, Brandon Miller achieved many accolades in his three-year career on the court as a Bulldog. After transferring to Butler from Southwest Missouri State, he was forced to sit out a year by NCAA rules. From 2000-03, Miller started 97 consecutive games and became one of just eight Butler players to score more than 1,000 career points in just three seasons. Probably his most distinguished award as a player, Brandon received the 2003 Chip Hilton Award, which sums up what would be college basketball's national mental attitude award.

A New Castle, Indiana native, Miller is proud to take over the storied program that he's helped build from the beginning of this great Butler basketball story. He brings back to Butler his wife Holly and their two young sons Michael and Mason.

Many probably hit the panic button as soon as Brad Stevens left to be the head coach of the Boston Celtics. Fear not Butler Bulldog faithful. Brandon Miller will take off right from where Brad Stevens left. The recruits are staying with their commitments to Butler University and the men's basketball program as originally promised.

Miller still has to put his staff together, but at this point in time, it looks like current assistants Terry Johnson and Michael Lewis will stay put on Miller's bench.

Stevens shocks Butler and becomes new Celtics coach

Just two days removed from one of the biggest days in Butler University history and things would shift gears even more surrounding the men's basketball program. The school had just become one of three new members of the Big East conference on Monday, July 1st, along with Xavier and Creighton.

The bigger news has shocked the Butler basketball nation, along with the world of college basketball and left it stunned on what will happen next. Hea
d coach Brad Stevens has decided to leave the sidelines at Hinkle Fieldhouse and take his chances at the NBA and become the next head coach of the Boston Celtics.

An extremely gutsy and bold move on his part, but when money is put out on the table, it speaks volumes. No specifics of his contract with Boston have been disclosed so far, but if it made him leave his beloved job at Butler, it must be lucrative enough that lure him to Beantown.


Stevens, a 36-year old native of Zionsville, Indiana, has obviously always had his goals set extremely high. Making five NCAA Tournaments, a CBI tourney appearance, but more importantly back-to-back NCAA championship National Runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011. He's done something with the Butler basketball program in the NCAA Tournament that no one could have predicted would have happened.

Compiling an amazing 166-49 record in his first six seasons as head coach, never winning less than 22 games in a season, Stevens was on the fast track to becoming the next great college basketball coach in America. Already regarded as one of the best around, Stevens hesitated none when it came time to decide. Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics owners made their way to Indianapolis on Wednesday to put the icing on the cake and Stevens accepted their deal to coach the storied Celtics franchise.

The next thing for Butler is who to bring in as the next coach. Do they hire a big name? Is hiring within the current coaching staff the right move for Butler athletic director Barry Collier? Those questions, amongst many others will be answering sooner rather than later hopefully.

Butler lands local flavor to complete 2013-14 roster

The Butler Bulldog basketball team can never have enough guards to cycle in and out of its lineup. Two incoming freshmen preferred walk-ons will occupy the two remaining spots on the 2013-14 men's basketball roster.

Carmel's Michael Volovic and New Castle's Steven Bennett are the newest proud members of the Butler basketball program and its storied history. Both are currently taking summer classes at Butler and practicing in preparation for the Bulldogs' exhibition trip and tour of Australia in August.

Michael Volovic comes highly recommended off of a stellar high school career at Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana, a north side suburb of Indianapolis. He was a very key part in guiding Carmel to back-to-back Indiana Class 4A state championships in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The 5'9 guard scored 14.3 per game and knocked down an astounding 46.3% from three-point range as a senior. Volovic led the Greyhounds to a 25-2 record and a #1 ranking throughout most of his senior year. Carmel was 58-19 in Volovic's three-year varsity career, while he led the freshmen team to a 21-0 mark in 2009-10. Michael capped off his senior campaign by being named to the AP All-State squad and was picked to be a memer of the Indiana All-Star team.

Steven Bennett continues the New Castle High School pipeline with Butler Bulldog basketball. Bennett joins a great list of Trojan guards at Butler that extends back the last decade-plus. Chase Stigall (2009-13), Zach Hahn (2007-11), Bruce Horan (2002-06), Brandon Miller (2000-03) and Darnell Archey (1999-03) are the handful of long-range shooters from New Castle that Bennett follows in the footsteps of to continue the New Castle-Butler pipeline.

As a senior, Bennett improved his numbers to average 17.6 points and 4.6 assists per game, with nearly a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, while shooting 42% from 3-pt range. He's been quite the quality guard for the New Castle Trojans the past four seasons, helping guide them to a 60-26 record. Steven tore his ACL and patella tendon late in his junior season.

Volovic and Bennett have their work cut out for sure. With a backcourt of Alex Barlow at point guard and Kellen Dunham sliding into Rotnei Clarke's shooting guard starting role, playing time will be hard to come by, especially with these two being walk-ons. But, this only adds depth to the Butler Bulldog roster and adding these two Indiana products makes the bench even better.

Thomas Jackson elected to Butler Athletics Hall of Fame

Thomas Jackson had one of the best pairs of hands in Butler men's basketball history. Jackson is amongst five former Butler student-athletes to be elected to the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame.

Butler University started its athletics enshrinement in 1991 The 23rd Hall of Fame Class at Butler includes former Bulldog greats Steve Abbott (track and field, 1958-60), Bob Lambert (football, baseball, 1976-80), Amy (Pickett) Lamb (volleyball 1995-98), Jen Marlow (basketball, 1995-99) and Thomas Jackson (basketball, 1998-2002).

This 2013 class will be formally inducted at an afternoon ceremony on the Butler University campus on Saturday, Sept. 21 and will also be introduced at halftime of the Dartmouth vs. Butler football game later that night at the Butler Bowl.

The 5'9 Jackson used his quickness and great court awareness to surely etch his place at the top of two different statistical categories that he still holds to this day.

By the time Jackson graduated from Butler, he had become the all-time leader in both assists and steals. He had also achieved a great status of scoring over 1,000 career points and more than 500 assists, which hadn't been done previously and he's still the lone Bulldog to accomplish this feat.

Jackson, who wore the #5 with pride for four years, was named All-Horizon league 1st team twice, as well as landing himself on the All-Defensive team a pair of times. In the winter of 2001, he was named the MVP of the Hoosier Classic by tallying 14 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists to lead #23 Butler to a 66-64 victory over host Indiana. The Bulldog win snapped the Hoosiers' 39-game winning streak in the Hoosier Classic.

Thomas Jackson capped off his senior season at Butler in 2001-02 with being named the Co-award winner of Butler University's Most Outstanding Male Athlete.

Currently, the 33 year-old Jackson from East Lansing, Michigan is playing in Sweden for Uppsala Basket, where he averaged 12.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game, while knocking down 48% of his field goals during the 2012-13 season.

The Butler Bulldog men's basketball program couldn't be more proud of one of its more decorated alumni. Congratulations to Thomas Jackson on his enshrinement into the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame.