Emily Newell
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The Indianapolis Star sports reporter and Butler University adjunct professor David Woods, who is preparing to cover his 10th season of Butler men’s basketball, is set to release his book, “The Butler Way: The Best of Butler Basketball,” in November.
“I had actually thought about writing a book about Butler basketball as long ago as 2001 when they were in the midst of a 13-0 start,” Woods said. “I always thought in terms of writing a book in terms of one single season of Butler basketball, but I never thought they had one season consequential enough to do a book on just that season.”
Last February, Woods said he committed to write a book instead about the highlights of Butler men’s basketball.
“I thought I would do chapters on the best teams, best players, best coaches and best games,” Woods said.
Woods said most of the book, about 80 to 85 percent, is focused on Butler basketball games, teams and coaches from this decade.
But Woods’ book includes chapters focusing on several other eras of Butler basketball, including the 1920s, a decade that saw the Bulldogs win two national championships.
Other notable teams included in the book are the 1948-49 team, which was the first Butler men’s basketball team to be nationally ranked, as well as the 1962 team, which made it to the Sweet 16.
The six teams the book focuses on are the 2001-2003 teams and the 2007-2009 teams.
Another section of the book, which discusses the best coaches in Butler basketball history, includes a chapter on current Butler Athletic Director Barry Collier.
“He’s had an enormous impact,” Woods said. “He has basically cleared the way so every coach after him was able to, at least on paper, exceed his achievements.
“Nothing that Butler has achieved in this decade would have been possible had it not been for Barry Collier’s turning around of the program in the 1990s.”
Woods said he decided to focus mostly on the current decade because of the enormous success of the teams in the 2000s.
“The teams have maintained and built on their success through four coaches,” Woods said. “Butler has lost its coach three times in this decade.”
Woods explained that only one other coach in major college basketball history has won more games than Brad Stevens, who has gone 56-10 in his first two seasons as head coach.
“In the past three seasons, Butler has the fifth best record in college basketball,” Woods said. “Admittedly, Butler hasn’t been playing in the ACC, but they have gone 85-17 the past three years.”
The Bulldogs are only behind Memphis (104-10), UNC (101-14), Kansas (97-19) and UCLA (91-18).
“All of those schools in the past three years have either won a national championship or have gone to the Final Four,” Woods said.
Woods also included a section with short overviews of what he deemed the best games in Butler basketball history.
Although most of the games are organized chronologically, Woods chose the top three games in Butler basketball history, the first being the Bulldogs’ 2007 would-be upset over the defending national champion, the Florida Gators.
The Bulldogs led several times throughout that game, including a one-point lead with four minutes remaining.
After squeezing past the Bulldogs 65-57, the Gators won the national championship for a second consecutive year.
Woods said all of the success in recent years did not necessarily drive him to publish a book now, but, as he began writing, he said he realized the timeliness of its release.
“As I got to doing this, I realized that this might be the most highly anticipated Butler basketball season,” Woods said. “They’ve never been ranked in the preseason. They’ve never started off with this much attention.”
He said this team has the most talent he has seen since the 2001-02 season. The 2001-02 team, along with the 2007-08 team, Woods said, are two of the best teams this decade.
“The 2001-02 team was snubbed from the NCAA,” Woods said. “You could have made the case that they were the best team in Butler history.”
In the book, Woods said he picked his personal first, second and third “all-time” teams, noting he listed returning players Matt Howard, Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack’s careers as “incomplete.”
The book is tentatively scheduled for release Nov. 13 and will be available at the university bookstore in Atherton Union, as well as conventional outlets around Indianapolis, including Borders and Barnes & Noble.
Woods said he hopes to do signings and sell the book at three upcoming home games at Hinkle Fieldhouse in December.
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