Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Ronald Nored Leaving For Boston Celtics Organization
Butler alumni and Alabama native Ronald Nored joins the Boston Celtics Organization with his former coach Brad Stevens. | collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com
After only being on the job less than five months, head basketball coach Matthew Graves is already searching to fill an empty position on his staff.
Assistant coach Ronald Nored announced that he has accepted a position with the Boston Celtics with former Butler University head coach Brad Stevens. Nored accepted the job with the Celtics’ Maine Red Claws D-League franchise.
Nored came to USA after spending one season as the head coach at Brownsburg Indiana High School. He was a four-year letterwinner at Butler from 2008-2012.
Graves was Brad Stevens’ top assistant at Butler before accepting the head coaching position at South Alabama.
NBC Sports Writer Covers Graves’ First Recruit
Head basketball coach Matt Graves. | Photo by butler.edu.
After Jaguar Basketball head coach Matt Graves signed his first recruit at South Alabama, NBC Sports College Basketball Talk’s Kevin Doyle wrote about the first recruit of the Graves era.
Austin Karazsia played two sports in high school and stood out in both. Along with his basketball play, as quarterback for his football team he passed for 3,328 yards and 42 touchdowns at Linton-Stockton High School.
He asked if Graves could be transforming USA into Butler south, but admitted it was too soon to make such a bold statement. You can read the entire article by clicking here.
Graves Adds Final Assistant To Staff
South Alabama’s head basketball coach Matt Graves announced the addition of Dan Matic to finish his staff. | Photo usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s head basketball coach Matt Graves completed his staff on Thursday when he announced the addition of former Eastern Illinois assistant Dan Matic to his staff.
Matic is a native of Brooklyn, New York and spent the 2012-13 season at Eastern Illinois as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. One of his recruits led all of the Ohio Valley Conference in scoring as a freshmen as the Panthers qualified for the conference tournament for the first time in three seasons.
Prior to EIU, he was an assistant at Olney Central College in Olney, Ill. In his lone season at OCC, they won 27 games and won the Great Rivers Athletic Conference championship for the first time in 14 years. Under his tutalige, Trivante Bloodman earned player of the year honors in the GRAC and the team finished second in the NJCAA region 24 Tournament, the best finish by the school since 1994. Five players, including Bloodman who signed with Mississippi State, went on to play at NCAA Division I schools.
Matic also worked as a video coordinator for the USA National Basketball team in 2009 in the 2009 World University Games in Serbia. The team led by Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan brought home the bronze medal. Matic then served two seasons as a graduate assistant and academic mentor at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Matic began his coaching career in 2001 with AAU Team Takeover of New York City. During his six seasons as head coach he led the squad to a sixth-place finish at AAU nationals and had 16 player earn scholarships to Division I schools. Devin Eubanks, who went to West Virginia and is now with the L.A. Lakers, and Ed Davis, who went to North Carolina and now the Toronto Raptors, were two who earned scholarships.
Graves Announces Nored Will Join Staff
Butler alumni and Alabama native Ronald Nored joins Matt Graves’ staff at USA. | collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com
South Alabama head basketball coach Matt Graves announced an addition to his staff on Tuesday. Homewood, Alabama native Ronald Nored will return to his home state to be an assistant coach for the Jags. Nored was a former Butler standout and comes back to the state after spending one season as the head coach at Brownsburg (Indiana) High School.
During his playing career, Nored set a record with 143 games played, including a school record 16 postseason games, while leading the Bulldogs to three Horizon League regular season championships, two league tournament titles and four consecutive trips to postseason tournament play. It included back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship title game. During his four years at Butler, they one 109 games and were 12-4 in postseason play.
During his senior season Nored led the Horizon league in assist/turnover ratio with 1.9, was second in assists per game with 5.2 and set a new school record with 193 assists which broke the previous record of 172. He ranks second in Butler’s career assists list with 497.
He was also only the second player in school history to record 400 points, 400 rebounds and 400 assists in a career.
In his only season as a head coach, Nored’s team began 3-8 but rallied to finish 11-10 on the season.
Graves Announces Archey As First Hire To Staff
South Alabama’s new head basketball coach Matt Graves officially named the first hire for his staff on Monday. Graves announced that the former Butler coordinator of basketball operations Darnell Archey has joined his coaching staff.
Archey, a New Castle, Indiana native, was a four-year letterwinner at Butler between 1999-2003 and has served on the staff the past four seasons. He has five years of coaching experience at the high school level including three as a head coach before being hired by his alma mater Butler. While a high school coach he taught two McDonald’s All-Americans and future all-conference players in the ACC and Big 10 Conferences.
Prior to joining the Butler staff, Archey was a head coach at Park Tudor (Indiana) High School from 2008-09. During his one season there, the coach a player who was ranked the number 2 point guard and number 19 overall by recruiting service Rivals.com.
As a player at Butler, Archey set several school records and played on three NCAA Tournament teams. He finished his career as their all-time leading three-point shooter, which he now ranks third at, with 217 while setting a new record for free throw percentage in a season at 97.3 percent and for a career with 95.1 percent.
His incredible mark at the free throw line set a NCAA record of 85 consecutive conversions set over parts of three seasons starting on February 15, 2001 and ending on January 18, 2003.
Archey brings more NCAA Tournament experience to Graves’ staff.
Rubit Earns Honorable Mention All-America Honors From AP
Rubit added another honors to his shelf on Monday. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
Augustine Rubit has garnered yet another national honor this off season. This time he was named Honorable Mention All-America by The Associated Press on Monday.
Rubit is the first Jaguar since Terry Catledge in 1984 to receive an All-America status from the Associated Press.
He led the Sun Belt in rebounding with 10.5 per game and was second in scoring with 19.4 points per game and also second in the conference in double-doubles with 16. He is also the first player in Sun Belt history to lead the conference in rebounding for three consecutive years.
Rubit set a new school record for free throws in a season with 198 while ranking third school history for rebounds with 315 and seventh in points with 582 in one season. He also became the first Jaguar to be named to the All-Sun Belt First Team in consecutive seasons since 2008 and is only the sixth to earn all-conference recognition three times.
Congratulations Aug!
Augustine Rubit Adds To His Season Honors
Rubit adds more honors to his shelf on Wednesday. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
The Jaguars basketball season may be over but Augustine Rubit continues to collect more honors. Rubit has already been named the 2012-2013 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year by the coach and media of the Sun Belt and Sun Belt Player of the year from four different organizations including CollegeInsider.com.
Rubit has also been named to the Lou Henson All-America Team by CollegeInsider.com and All-District 24 First Team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He was also named to the fourth team All-Mid Major by College Sports Madness.
Rubit is the only representative from the Sun Belt to be named to the Henson All-America team which consists of 25 players from mid-major Division I conferences.
Aug was the leading rebounder in the conference with 10.5 per game and finished second in the conference in scoring with 19.4 points per game, both ranking in the top 10 in the nation. He also earned 16 double-doubles during the season.
Jags Hire Butler Associate Head Coach Matthew Graves
USA announced the hiring of Matthew Graves as the programs 10th head basketball coach on Monday. Photo by butler.edu.
The University of South Alabama announced the hiring of a coach to take over the Men’s basketball program on Monday. Dr. Joel Erdmann, Athletics Director at South Alabama announced the hiring of Butler associate head coach Matthew Graves as the Jags 10th head basketball coach.
Graves hopes to duplicate some of the NCAA tournament success Butler has enjoyed over the recent years. And Graves does not think that winning will take long for the Jags in the Sun Belt conference. That was his message tot he team prior to Monday’s new conference as well.
“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.”
He replaces Ronnie Arrow who retired 10 games into the season as the programs winningest coach and the winningest coach in the Sun Belt after surpassing Gene Bartow earlier in the season. Arrow has since been overtaken by Kermit Davis of Middle Tennessee for the conference’s winningest coach.
Associate head coach Jeff Price filled in as interim head coach the rest of the season and led the Jags to a 12-8 record during his tenure and a #3 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament but fell to eventual champion Western Kentucky in the quarterfinals. The Jags then fell to Tulane in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Graves has been an assistant coach at Butler for nine seasons and was promoted to associate head coach in 2010. During both the 2010 and 2011 seasons Butler made it to the NCAA championship game. However they lost to Marquette in the second round of the NCAA tournament this season.
Graves played for Butler from 1993-1998 and was a member of the program’s first NCAA tournament team in 35 years. He was voted the teams Most Valuable Player as a senior by leading the team to a second consecutive tournament appearance. He still ranks in the top 10 in career 3-pointers and three throw shooting.
Graves did not know much about South Alabama until he got the first email from Dr. Erdmann about the opening. But he came away impressed with the peoplee and the facilities. “I didn’t know a lot about South Alabama except for that moment before I looked into it,” Graves told ESPN.com. “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. I understood there was some history here, good tradition. The Mitchell Center is a phenomenal facility to recruit to.”
Dr. Erdmann was sold on Graves after the interview. “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 to ESPN.com. “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 man that when you get to know him, you will understand and appreciate why this decision was made. 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.”
Brad Stevens, Butler’s head coach and Graves’ former mentor, is happy for him. “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.”
The news also excited the Jaguars fan base. Many were thinking that Price might get the position after what he was able to do with the program after Arrow’s retirement. However they believe Erdmann hit it out of the park with the hiring of Graves. Price has already been mentioned for other positions.
Price stepped into a difficult situation and did a good job despite losing probably the programs best shooter in Xavier Roberson to off-the-court problems and Freddie Goldstein to a broken collarbone. But the Jags managed to grind out wins but with their thin ranks and opponent’s attention on Augustine Rubit, the Jags could not get wins the conference tournament nor could they get a win in the CollegeInsider.com tournament.
Jags Season Ends With 84-73 Loss To Tulane In CollegeInsider.com Tournament
The South Alabama Jaguars men’s basketball team had their season end Wednesday night as they fell 84-73 in New Orleans to the Tulane Green Wave.
Over the final five minutes of the game Tulane used a 9-0 run to clinch the win over the Jags in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The Jags end the season with a 17-13 overall record while the Green Wave improve to 20-14 and advance in the tournament.
The difference in the game was from the free throw line as Tulane went 27-of-37 from the charity stripe.
Junior Augustine Rubit was the games top scorer with 31 points with 25 of them coming after halftime including 15 consecutive late in the game. He was 12-of-18 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
Sophomore Mychal Ammons scored 11 points while Javier Carter just missed a double-double with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Freddie Goldstein would add four points in his final game of his career at USA and his first returning from a broken collarbone.
Josh Davis of Tulane earned his 19th double-double of the season with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Kendall Timmons and Ricky Tarrant both added 13 points each.
The Jags trailed all of the final 38:55 of the game but would not allow themselves to be put away. Barrington Stevens III would pull the Jags within two points with 12:37 left but that would be as close as they could get, the closest they would get the rest of the way out would be four points.
“I thought our guys fought extremely hard in some tough situations,” interim head coach Jeff Price said after the game. “It was hard to get a flow of the game. Because of the free throws, you couldn’t get a rhythm or a flow going. We got in to foul trouble, particularly with Aug in the first half. I thought our guys were resilient like they always have been, it just caught up with us in the end.”
“It was another unbelievable effort by him [Augustine Rubit],” Price said. “Again, those numbers came with him being double and triple teamed. He did a nice job kicking it out and just played extremely well.”
“I’m proud of our guys,” said Price. “They’ve been tremendous all year. They like each other, they play hard and they play together. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”
Now the focus will turn towards the coaching search, which Jeff Price is a candidate for, to see who will be the next men’s head basketball coach at South Alabama.
Goldstein Cleared To Play Just In Time For CollegeInsider.com Basketball Tournament
Freddie Goldstein medically cleared to play after missing seven weeks with a broken collarbone. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Freddie Goldstein was cleared to play for the Jaguars in the CollegeInsider.com Basketball Tournament.
Goldstein suffered a broken collarbone against Western Kentucky on January 24 at the Mitchell Center. At first the injury looked to have ended his senior season but after seven weeks of watching from the sidelines, he was cleared by team doctors on Monday. The Jags will travel to play Tulane in New Orleans on Wednesday in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com tournament.
Goldstein started 17 of 18 games prior to his injury while averaging 8.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game with 45 assists. Interim head coach Jeff Price is happy to have Goldstein back, as are fans. it is unknown how much time he may see in the game against Tulane after finally hitting the court with the team on Monday. But if the Jaguars advance, it is expected with more practice time he could see more playing time.
But that depends on the Jaguars advancing in the tournament.
The Jags and the Green Wave are set to tip-off at 7pm.