MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama hired Butler associate head coach Matthew Graves on Monday as the 10th head coach in the history of the Jaguars’ men’s basketball program.
Athletics director Dr. Joel Erdmann announced the hire. Graves met with the team before Monday’s news conference and told players he expects the Jaguars to contend in the Sun Belt Conference immediately.
“We’re here next year to compete for a championship,” Graves said. “This is not a rebuilding process. This is not a reloading process. This is a process that we’re going to have sustained success starting next year. That is the goal from Day one. We’re going to put a team out there that everyone’s going to be proud of on and off the court.”
Butler Background
Graves spent nine seasons as an assistant coach at Butler and was promoted to associate head coach in 2010. Butler reached the NCAA championship game in both 2010 and 2011. This season the Bulldogs advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they lost to Marquette.
Graves also played at Butler from 1993 to 1998. He was a member of the program’s first NCAA tournament team in 35 years, and as a senior he was voted team Most Valuable Player while helping Butler to a second consecutive tournament appearance. He remains among Butler’s top 10 in career 3-pointers and free-throw shooting.
Butler head coach Brad Stevens, Graves’ mentor, praised the hire.
“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,” 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.”
Why South Alabama
Graves told ESPN.com he knew little about South Alabama before receiving Erdmann’s first email about the opening, but that a campus visit won him over.
“People ask why South Alabama? Why would a Midwest guy want to go to South Alabama. When I came down to look at campus, I was sold right away,” Graves said. “I understood there was some history here, good tradition. The Mitchell Center is a phenomenal facility to recruit to.”
Erdmann on the Decision
Erdmann told ESPN.com that Graves’ interview secured the job.
“If you look at coach Graves’ background and the world that he has lived in over the past decade-plus, what they have been able to accomplish at an institution that is not too dissimilar from one of ours is nothing short of spectacular,” Erdmann said. “The resume got him an interview. The resume and the accomplishments got him involved in the search, but the interview landed the job.”
“He is a tremendous basketball person. He lives the game. He understands the game. He knows how to teach the game. He knows how to recruit and he knows how to create a program that will have a sustained level of success,” Erdmann added.
Replacing Ronnie Arrow
Graves succeeds Ronnie Arrow, who retired 10 games into the 2012-13 season as South Alabama’s winningest coach. Arrow had also become the Sun Belt’s all-time winningest coach earlier in the season by passing Gene Bartow, before Middle Tennessee’s Kermit Davis later moved ahead of him.
Associate head coach Jeff Price served as interim head coach for the remainder of the season and went 12-8. Despite losing Xavier Roberson to off-court issues and Freddie Goldstein to a broken collarbone, the Jaguars earned the No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament. South Alabama fell to eventual champion Western Kentucky in the quarterfinals and then lost to Tulane in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
