A former player, team captain, and assistant coach at Butler, Thad Matta certainly means a lot to the Bulldogs. He began his head coaching career with Butler back in 2000, spending a single season before experiencing more success at Xavier and Ohio State in later years. Matta led Ohio State to a pair of Final Fours before retiring in 2017 and surprised many when he took the Butler job for a second time five years later.
In between his stints, Butler had experienced an insane growth, thanks largely to Brad Stevens and a pair of trips to the national championship game in 2010 and 2011. The program parlayed that success into a Big East invite and did brilliant work in their half decade in the conference. Unfortunately, progress slowed under former coach LaVall Jordan, who had three seasons under .500 in his final four years, leading to Matta’s rehiring in 2022.
What stings in Indianapolis is that this program hasn’t bounced back these last three years. Matta has two more finishes under .500, with the highlight being an 18-15 campaign in 2024 that included an 8th place finish in the Big East. This funk has continued while conference foes like UConn and St. John’s have grabbed national news, all while rivals like Villanova and Seton Hall have had their own disappointment.
Why can’t Butler take advantage? Why hasn’t this program sniffed the NCAA Tournament in the last seven years? Would they actually cut ties with Matta if things continued on this same trajectory this upcoming season? Fortunately, he and his staff haven’t been sitting on their hands and there’s reason for hope ahead.
While some notable talent graduated or walked out the door, the Bulldogs will return Finley Bizjack, a rising junior guard with intriguing potential. Butler adds a Top 100 recruit in Azavier Robinson, a point guard from Indianapolis, and also nabbed Jack McCaffery and Jackson Keith, two forwards who could see minutes ahead.
A five-pack of transfer additions give Butler an intriguing class of new talent highlighted by Michael Ajayi, a former Gonzaga forward who previously starred at Pepperdine and could be a different maker for the Bulldogs. Former Horizon League point guard Jalen Jackson and talented SMU big man Yohan Traore are also notable additions and might all grab starting positions for next season. Yame Butler from Drexel is another add who could see major run this season.
Butler’s new pieces look good initially with this program hoping to turn around a defense that really struggled last season. Matta’s group shot reasonably well but was among the worst teams in the nation in forcing turnovers. These new faces are hoping to get Butler back into contention in a tough Big East with the goal of ending a now lengthy NCAA Tournament drought.
It’s hard to know just what this program is thinking right now. In all reality, Matta is more likely to retire a second time than for the program to actually relieve him of his duties, but few have to be pleased about the current state of affairs. Matta’s teams have been more competitive than some of those at the end of Jordan’s tenure, but it hasn’t been a major step forward. If that step doesn’t come soon, Butler could have another head coaching search going very soon.