I mentioned this earlier in the day as a rumor. I just wanted to pass along the press release now that it has been made official.
fter spending the last 10 seasons as an assistant on the staff at Butler, where his efforts helped the Bulldogs advance to back-to-back NCAA Tournament championship games while appearing in the event in six of the last seven years, Matthew Graves has been named head men’s basketball coach at the University of South Alabama.
USA Director of Athletics Dr. Joel Erdmann made the announcement Monday at a 2 p.m. press conference at the Mitchell Center.
“At South Alabama, I think you are looking at a position that right now is one of the top jobs in the Sun Belt [Conference] with everything from resources to location to facilities,” Graves said. “It is a top-notch job, but what I needed to investigate was the type of people associated with the program including the athletic administration and support staff. What I found throughout this process is that the people are tremendous, much like those I’ve worked with at Butler University.”
“The selection of Matthew as our head men’s basketball coach was the result of an extensive and in-depth national search. The pool of finalists was filled with top-notch basketball coaches and basketball minds,” stated Erdmann. “As the process transpired, it became very clear that the right man for the job was Matthew Graves. He has a vision and a plan to build a program based upon proven successful principles and clear expectations. He is a relentless recruiter, a student of the game, a savvy and skilled coach, a teacher who improves individual and team performance, and a man with integrity and impressive interpersonal skills.”
During his tenure at Butler, Graves has helped the program to an overall record of 244-98 (71.3%), a berth in national postseason tournaments each of the last eight seasons and eight straight years with 20-plus victories. Following the 2009-10 campaign that saw the Bulldogs finish 33-5 after falling to Duke 61-59 in the national title contest, he was promoted to associate head coach; in his first year in that role, Butler returned to the NCAA Tournament championship game after defeating Pittsburgh, Florida and Wisconsin — the first, second and fourth seeds — in the Southeast Region while going on to post a 28-10 record.
This season, the Bulldogs’ first in the Atlantic 10 Conference, they went 27-9 including an 11-5 mark in league action. In addition to advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, Butler defeated two of the four No. 1 seeds in the event — Indiana and Gonzaga — during the regular season.
Graves first helped lead Butler back to postseason play in 2005-06, when the school went 20-13 after earning a first-round win in the National Invitation Tournament. The following year, the Bulldogs won the NIT Season Tip-Off and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual champion Florida en route to a final record of 29-7. Butler finished 30-4 after claiming the Horizon League Tournament title and a first-round NCAA win in 2007-08, advancing to the NCAA Tournament again the next season while posting a 26-6 mark.
While on the Butler staff, Graves was listed No. 2 on CollegeInsider.com’s ranking of top 25 mid-major assistants in 2009 while the previous year FoxSports.com recognized him as one of the top 10 mid-major assistants in the country.
Graves started as an assistant coach at North Central and Ben Davis High Schools in Indianapolis, joining the Bulldog staff as coordinator of men’s basketball operations in 2001. During his first two seasons at Butler, the Bulldogs won 53 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2003 NCAA Tournament.
“I could not be more thrilled for both Matthew and South Alabama. He is a terrific person and coach, who will undoubtedly bring great credit to the University,” Butler head coach Brad Stevens said. “He’s an excellent communicator who understands what it takes to win at the highest level. We thank him for the 17 total years he spent at Butler as a player and staff member; he had a tremendous impact on Butler basketball.”
As a player, Graves lettered four years at Butler and was part of a program that posted a 95-54 (63.8%) mark while he was in school. He was team captain each of his final two seasons, when the Bulldogs went 23-10 and 22-11, respectively, after winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Graves was the third-leading scorer on the team in 1996-97 when Butler made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 35 years, while as a senior he was chosen the squad’s most valuable player and was named to the MCC all-tournament team after recording 18 points in the championship contest.
He scored 994 points during his career, and still ranks among the top 10 in school history with 175 three-point field goals and an 84.6 free-throw percentage. Graves’ 42 points his senior year against Cleveland State is the fifth-highest total in a game in Bulldog history.
Off the court, he was named to the GTE Academic All-District V team his final year and was also an academic all-league selection.
Graves earned his bachelor’s degree from Butler in education (chemistry) in 1998 and his master’s degree from the school in 2003 in education administration. He and his wife Susan have two daughters, Abigail and Lillian.
The Jaguars finished the 2012-13 season with 17-13 overall record — earning a bid to the CollegeBasketballInsider.com Postseason Tournament — and were the third seed at the SBC Tournament with a 14-6 league mark. It was the second year in a row that USA has ended with a winning record.
“We’re going to have a team that not only the people at South Alabama will appreciate and be proud to be a part of, but the entire community,” Graves observed. “I think everyone will embrace the program not only because of how hard the kids work and play, but how they act both on and off the court.”
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