The Butler Way: The Best of Butler Basketball

by David Woods

In The Butler Way by David Woods you will relive the glory of the Butler Bulldogs basketball program and all the great teams from the 1920s through the 2009 season. You will get to know the greatest players and coaches both past and present. David Woods captures the essence of this remarkable basketball program and gives you a front row seat to one of Americas most storied college basketball programs, Butler University s Butler Bulldogs. Smart, tough, and unselfish. Disciplined, confident, and poised. Competitive, freely, and with great joy. Those characteristics have been on display through multiple classes of players and a number of head coaches, which speaks to the essence of Butler's sustained success. There are many ways to achieve championship-level success in D-1 college basketball, and Butler has found its own way The Butler Way. - From the Foreword by Clark Kellogg If you want to learn how basketball is played in its purest form the team game learn all you can about Butler hoops. They represent what college basketball is all about. This book is awesome, baby! - Dick Vitale The book opens with a discussion of the Butler way. Barry Collier, a former Butler player, was hired as coach in 1989 and slowly rebuilt a program that had declined since the days of Tony Hinkle. Collier emphasized the Butler way, which featured team play. The whole of Collier s teams was always greater than the sum of the parts, and that tradition was extended to the coaches that followed. The book also covers great players, teams and seasons in the history of the Butler men's basketball program. Butler coaches Thad Matta, Todd Lickliter and Brad Stevens have all taken teams to the NCAA Tournament. Fans will also be pleased to read about the famed Hinkle Fieldhouse, the greatest coaches, teams, players and great moments in the storied history of Butler basketball. The book is peppered with quotes and photos, stats and more. David Woods has covered the Olympic games for The Indianapolis Star over the past twenty years, and he has been their beat writer for Butler basketball since 2001 and maintains the premier blog for the Butler Bulldogs.

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Ted Hinkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchased in 2009 when David Woods released publication. Being a loyal Butler alumus, I enjoy reading the history of Butler basketball from the 1920s through today. What makes Butler special? Doing it " The Butler Way". I've read David Wood's excellent documentary of Butler University basketball, the seasons, coaches, players and special moments. This goes on the shelf as a favorite. It's the "Butler Way".

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Butler basketball is not a mystery but plain old hard nosed style of ball. The Butler Way can be summed up in just a few words, "There is no I in team." As the legendary coach Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle put it when asked to name the best player he ever coached? His reply "never had great players" only " great team players." The most moving stories from this read were Matt White, Shawn Vanzant and Ronald Nored which dealt not with basketball but life values and it's meanings.

[Leigh Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read since we have been season ticket holders for Butler basketball for many years. I wanted to read Underdawgs, but figured I should read this one first. I don't think it has wide appeal, but Butler basketball fans will enjoy reliving the memorable people and games that have been a part of the basketball culture at Butler.