Butler starts Aussie trip with win over Norths Bears

The Butler Bulldogs got things off on the right foot in the first game of their exhibition trip to Australia. Brandon Miller's first coaching experience with Butler produced a 77-65 victory over Norths Bears.

On a normal person's 18-hour flight where they cross many time zones and gain 12 hours in the process, it's going to cause a good amount of jet lag. That wasn't the case for Miller's Bulldogs. This game vs. Norths Bears came just one day after landing in the "land down under."

The Bulldogs were somewhat refreshed to be back on the court playing actual games, but it wasn't easy. They were playing four 10 minute periods, which obviously still equals out to a 40 minute college game. It took time, but Butler found a way and climbed out of the hole that Norths had them in from the start.

Norths led from the start 11-4, but BU brought it back to down just eight, trailing 25-17 after one.
The second quarter belonged to Butler. They put together a much improved frame by taking a 20-12 advantage to tie things up at 37-37 at halftime.

Butler took over in the second half and was able to get a lot of bench play into taking Norths Bears out of their home comfort zone. The Bulldogs took the second 40 minutes 40-28 to eventually cruise to a 77-65 victory.

Jackson Aldridge, a junior from Sydney, Australia, got the chance to not only play in his home land, but got the start at the point guard slot. Aldridge scored two points while dishing out three assists. Sophomore Kellen Dunham (left) (Pendleton, IN/Pendleton Heights) led all scorers with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-16 field goals, including converting five of his 11 three-point attempts.

Junior Roosevelt Jones (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon), senior Khyle Marshall (Davie, FL/Flanagan) and Erik Fromm (Bloomington, IN/South) also started with Aldridge and Dunham. Fromm was Butler's 2nd leading scorer with 14 point and six boards, shooting 6-of-11 from the floor. Marshall pitched in with 8 points and 7 rebounds, while Jones played just four minutes and didn't score.

Freshman Nolan Berry (St. Louis, MO/De Smet) knocked in nine points on four field goals, while junior Andrew Smeathers (Bargersville, IN/Center Grove) had eight off the Bulldog bench. Junior Alex Barlow (Springboro, OH/Moeller) added five points and five boards. Classmate Kameron Woods (Louisville, KY/Eastern) had four points and 10 rebounds, while freshman guard Rene Castro (Milton, MA/Worcester Academy) and sophomore Devontae Morgan (Tampa, FL/Tampa Prep) to help round out Butler's 31 bench points.

Nick Blair led Norths Bears with a team-high 21 points, with Michael Rowley scoring 13 and Daniel Young adding 10.

Butler's next exhibition game will be this Thursday, August 8 against the Sydney Kings at 7 p.m. ET. The radio broadcast can be heard on the Sydney Kings' team site, www.sydneykings.com.

Bulldogs to get head start with Australian exhibitions

New Butler head coach Brandon Miller is getting a chance to do something that almost no other coach in college basketball gets to do with his team before the school year starts. Miller and the Bulldogs have been practicing away since July 21st in preparing for their team's trip to Australia.

The Bulldog players and coaching staff left the Indianapolis International Airport for an 18-hour flight to Sydney, Australia, where they will get the opportunity to spend 11 days on Aussie soil.

Their first week, Butler will play four different exhibition contests in five days between August 6 and 11th.

Butler opens play against the Norths Bears Invitational Team in Sydney on Tuesday, August 6th at 4 p.m. After a day off, they'll continue the exhibition tour in Sydney with a game versus the Sydney Kings at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 8th.

For the remaining two exhibition matchups, they'll be traveling to a couple other cities to play. On, Saturday, August 10th, the Australian Boomers will play host to Butler in Canberra. This game with the Australian Boomers will be a game that is not open or available to the public. For the fourth and final game on the Australian trip exhibition slate, the Bulldogs will head to Cairns to face Cairns Taipans at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 11.

All 16 members of the 2013-14 Butler Bulldog men's basketball team are making the trip to Australia. Khyle Marshall, Alex Barlow and Roosevelt Jones are the three starters that return from last season's 27-9 squad that advanced to the NCAA Tournament's third-round, but were ousted by Marquette, 74-72.

That trio is joined by experienced returning letter winners Kellen Dunham, Kameron Woods and Erik Fromm, along with Jackson Aldridge, Andrew Smeathers, Devontae Morgan and Elliot Kampen,

Coach Miller has quite the recruiting class that gets to start their collegiate careers in grand fashion with this Australian trip.  The freshman class of Michael Volovic, Steven Bennett, Elijah Brown, Rene Castro, Nolan Berry and Andrew Chrabascz are going to be exposed to opponents like they've never faced before.

With the amount of experience coming back for Butler, it's going to be very interesting to see how these four exhibitions turn out and what kind of lineups Brandon Miller uses against the different Aussie teams.

A trip like this for a team can only turn into something good in the long run. For Butler, it's going to be all about how this version of Butler basketball can and will build team chemistry and bond together. Spending 11 days in a foreign land with only their teammates and coaches is going to be a tremendous way to mesh this group in the best way possible, in hopes that it will produce big-time results on the court.

Butler hasn't made a trip overseas since the summer of 2009. That summer, the Bulldogs made a similar trip to Italy. The results of that exhibition trip now speaks volumes of what can become of this kind of team adventure. As history unveiled itself, the 2009-10 season proved to become something that was nothing short of special in Butler basketball history. Going 18-0 in Horizon League play and compiling an astounding overall record of 33-5, Butler was one Gordon Hayward half court bank shot away from winning the 2010 NCAA National Championship over Duke. But, Hayward's shot was just off the mark and Duke escaped Butler for a 61-59 win.

Regardless of that outcome in 2010 against Duke or the 2011 National Championship loss to Connecticut, Butler seems to figure out how to get closer as a team, in order to strive to achieve its goals. Only time will tell what this trip to Australia will hold for this Butler Bulldog team.

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.