PITTSBURGH — This is the second consecutive year Butler has had to adjust to a new🔴 coach.
Two years ago, Brad Stevens left the school to coach the NBA’s Celtics after having𒐪 led the Bulldogs to two national championship game appearances🉐.
Stevens was 🌺replaced by Brandon Miller, but Miller was forced to leave t💟he team in the fall because of an unspecified illness, according to the school.
He ꧟was replaced by Chris Holtmann, who was Miller’s🔯 first hire as an assistant.
Holtmann, who earlier this year had the “interim’’ label removed, on Wednesday joked about how the sixth-seeded Bulldogs, once the mid-major darlings of the NCAA Tournament, are being🀅 perceived this March — particularly by Presidenဣt Obama, who chose 11th seeded Texas to beat them.
Butler also is an underdog to Texas.
“You look at the seeding and I notice not many people are picking us — in✱cluding our president,’’ꦺ Holtmann said. “So that’s going to be the last time I vote for him.’’
The B💖utler players said they quickly adjusted to Holtmann after Miller was for🎐ced to leave.
“This coaching change wasn’t our first,’’ Kameron Woods said. “So from that respec🐼t, We kind of knew theꦐ process for how it was going to be with a new guy coming in.”
Thursday’s game between Villanova and Lafayette will be an emotional one — particularly for Fran O’Hanlon, the Laไfayette coach, who played guard for Villanova from 1967-7🀅0.
“Everything is a lot of fun right now and upꦰ until game time,” O’Hanlon said. “That’s when it gets scary. I watched Villanova run through the Big East. They’re a terrific basketball team.”
Wildcats coach Jay Wright called O’Hanlon “a very, very loyal Villanova guℱy.”
“He really stays in close touch with us,”൲ Wright said. “He knows all of our guys. He follows every game.ꦺ He knows everything about us, inside and out.
“We’re excited about playing against Lafayette. I think this is going to be a great basketball day for the Villanova family. I don’t know if it’s going𓃲 to be great for me a🍌nd Fran going against each other.”
Northeastern, which folded its football team following the 2009 season and is known more for its hockey team, has see🦂n its men’s basketball team become all the ra𒆙ge around campus since it qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Junior Quincy Ford said he “got high fives going t🀅o class’’ on Tuesday.
“We’ve had a tremendous outpouring of support and congratulations from the entire Northeastern community — former players, alums, fans, friends of the program,’’ Northeastern coach Bill Coe🐈n said.
North Carolina Stat🥃e’s Ralston Turner will play against his former team, LSU. Turner began his collegiate career with the Tigers before transferring to play for The Wolfpack.
“A few emotions came up,’’ Turner said about seeing the matchup with LSU. “I spent my first two years there, soౠ that was the place I started. It will be a place I never forget. So I can’t lie to you, emotions popped up.”
Texas coach Rick Barnes is in the ✅NCAA Tournam𝓡ent for the 16th time in 17 years, yet he never has won a national championship, something that has people speculating about his job security. The Longhorns haven’t been to a Sweet 16 since 2008.
“I don’t worry abo🌜ut it,’’ Barnes said. “How do I deal with it? I’ve been doing it long enough to know that there are always going to be people that are going to have their opinions, and you don’t worry about it. I hope my identity is not just basketball. It’s what ♋I do, but when it’s all said and done, I hope that’s not what people will remember me for.”
Notre Dame has the most succes🐠sful combined men’s and women’s basketball programs in the country this year, with the men 29-5 and ranked No. 8 in the nation and the women 31-2 and ranked No. 2. Kentucky is second to the fighting Irish’s 60 combined wins, with 34 wins f⭕or the men and 23 for the women.