“You knew Butler was never going to beat themselves,” said Ohio State coach Thad Matta, a former Butler coach whose teams were beaten twice in three games by Stevens’s teams.Īs Siena coach Fran McCaffery once said, “If you’re going to beat them, you almost have to play a perfect game.” The third tier is “Preparation.” And perhaps more than any other characteristic - more than toughness, execution, or defense - Stevens’s Butler teams were as prepared as any in the nation. He said it’s important to always be as prepared as possible.Ī four-tier pyramid is fixed on a whiteboard in the Butler locker room. Mark replies that he’s studying because he’s not sure what cases tomorrow will bring. His father, Mark, an orthopedic surgeon, is up late again, going over medical notes. It’s after 10, maybe closer to midnight, many years ago at Stevens’s childhood home in Zionsville, Ind. As he sat in the team’s practice facility beneath 11 title banners that Russell helped win in his 13 years in Boston, Stevens used the word “culture” in his first public remarks. Stevens kept that copy of Russell’s book, filled it with notes, and was rereading it this July during his flight to Boston, where he was to be introduced as the Celtics new head coach. But try doing this every single moment, every single day, over and over and over.” “Everybody thinks, ‘Well, there’s got to be more, there’s got to be something else,’ ” Graves said. Today, on the front wall of the Butler men’s basketball room is a placard that reads: “The Butler Way begins with a ‘collective determination never to embarrass ourselves.’ And we agree that The Butler Way is not merely a concept, but a ‘culture and a practice - and we all are responsible for it.’ ” It began with a collective determination never to embarrass ourselves.” Two of Russell’s ideals stuck with them, one about team ego (“My ego demands - for myself - the success of my team”) and the other about the culture of the Celtics: “ ‘Celtic Pride’ is a real concept, a culture, and a practice rather than an idea.
MICHAEL HICKEY/GETTY IMAGES/GettyĪmong their key influences was a book Lickliter had given Stevens, a book by Celtics legend Bill Russell: “Russell Rules: 11 lessons on Leadership From the Twentieth Century’s Greatest Winner.” Success at Butler wasn’t something Brad Stevens just slapped together - it was the product of exhaustive preparation.
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