Butler has agreed in principle to make LaVall Jordan its new men’s basketball coach, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeff Goodman.
Butler reportedly set to hire LaVall Jordan as new basketball coach
Jordan will replace Chris Holtmann after one season as the head coach at Milwaukee.
Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
At Butler, Jordan will take over for Chris Holtmann, who left the program to become the new head coach at Ohio State last Friday. The Bulldogs went to the NCAA tournament and won at least one game in the Big Dance in each of Holtmann’s three seasons on the job.
Jordan was assistant coach at Butler from 2004-07, helping the Bulldogs reach the Sweet 16 in his final year there. He then followed head coach Todd Lickliter to Iowa, where he served as an assistant until 2010. After six seasons as an assistant under John Beilein at Michigan, Jordan accepted the head coaching job at Milwaukee in 2016.
Jordan’s first season as a head coach had more downs than ups. The Panthers won just 11 games and finished in last place in the Horizon League. Still, Jordan managed to find some magic at the end of the campaign, as Milwaukee made a shocking run to the conference tournament championship game before falling to Northern Kentucky. Had the Panthers won that game, they would have made history for having the worst record of any team ever to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
The 38-year-old Jordan had previously interviewed to be Butler’s head coach in 2013. The job ultimately went to Brandon Miller, who had to walk away after one season because of health issues, resulting in Holtmann taking over.
This will be the fourth time in the last six seasons that Butler has had a new head coach.
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