Stevens Signs Extension with Butler

Brad Stevens, fresh off leading Butler to within an inch (literally) of a National Championship, just signed a contract extension with the school. The extension is for a whopping 12 years and financial terms were not disclosed. It is believed that the deal is for somewhere around $1 to 1.5 million dollars per year.

I am stoked for Butler and glad to see them put together a solid enough compensation package to keep this guy around. Stevens is, without question in my opinion, the best young coach in college basketball and keeping him at a small program like Butler is a major coup. On the flip side, however, I kind of feel a little bad for Stevens himself. There's a chance that he can be the Coach K of Butler, meaning he could take a small private school and turn it into a basketball powerhouse. If he does that, there is literally no better place for a coach to be than a program he has built. And if nothing else, this Final Four run has earned him at least 5 years of people loving him, no matter how successful or unsuccessful he is. But, I think there's a very strong chance that this guy will never be able to replicate this magical run at Butler and he may spend of the rest of his career chasing this moment.

In truth, he probably picked a bad year to make a run like this because there aren't a lot of better jobs available in college basketball right now. Butler is right in the middle of the pack in terms of prestige and pedigree. As such, it would be a lateral move (or a downgrade) to go to a place like Oregon, Clemson, or any of the other programs who would be interested in his services right now. With no openings at the Elite Schools (Kentucky, UCLA, Duke, UNC, Indiana, etc. etc.), Stevens' choices would have been limited. As a result, he may be stuck chasing a moment that can never be repeated for half the money he potentially could have had at a bigger program. Of course, only time will tell and if anyone can turn a mid-major into a powerhouse, I think Stevens is the guy. Here's hoping this extension works out for both him and the school.
 
-BG