Ronald Nored’s history within Butler’s basketball cathedral is no secret. But while Hinkle’s sun-soaked court illuminated the former point guard’s heart and hustle, a burgeoning coaching career lay in the shadows.
As a high school senior, Nored made his first attempt at coaching, starting with a sixth grade rec-league team. It did not go well.
“We lost every game except the last one,” Nored said. “When we won that last one, it was like we won the national championship game.”
Nored was not discouraged, though. After settling into life at Butler throughout his first year on campus, the sophomore was ready to stalk the sidelines once again.
Along with Mark Schlafer, longtime president of HSE-Fishers youth basketball, Nored noticed a need for an AAU team that bucked many of the harmful trends that had become common on the AAU circuit. Holding real practices, defending and playing the game the right way became cornerstones of the conversation, and soon, Team Truth was born.
“It’s the only AAU I had ever heard of at that time, or since then, that practiced defense and had a defensive mentality,” Team Truth member Tyler Duffy said. “That’s kind of a dying breed so having that was pretty spectacular.”
Playing hard was at the core of the team, but not at the cost of an enjoyable experience. Having played on the AAU circuit himself, Nored knew firsthand that a bad experience could stifle players’ passion.
For some, including Duffy, who went on to play Division III basketball, Team Truth flipped the script.
“Some players, like me, were starting to lose the love of basketball and be on their way out of the sport as a whole,” Duffy said. “That got pretty sternly turned around on that team.”
Part of the catalyst for Team Truth’s collective love of basketball was Nored radiating that same passion.
Greg Gardner, who also played on the team, described the bought-in mentality Nored expected from his players.
“Ronald was all about maximizing time,” Gardner said. “Whenever you’re in the gym, let’s not be screwing around. We’re here to get better as individuals and as a team, so let’s make the most of it.”
In many ways, Team Truth’s play style was a reflection of Nored, who embodied hustle, defense and team basketball.
Gardner, an eventual Division II player, praised the wealth of knowledge Nored passed along.
“I learned more about defense in my two years of playing for him than I did probably the rest of my basketball career,” Gardner said. “[He taught us] about being in gaps, being in help, guarding your yard … I think for high school kids, you would have to be an idiot to go to practice and not listen to Ronald with his pedigree. It was such a cheat code that he was able to coach us.”
Of course, with practices starting in March of 2010, Team Truth was not the only thing on Nored’s mind. The Dawgs’ glue guy found himself pulling a hectic double shift, with NCAA tournament games on Thursdays and Saturdays followed by practice for Team Truth early each week.
“I really don’t know how I did it,” Nored said. “But it was something I was passionate about, so I found a way to do it.”
Gardner remembered his experience as a lifelong Bulldog fan who got to play for the original “Coach Nored”.
“Being as big of a Butler fan as I was, that run was insane enough as is,” Gardner said. “But also, the starting point guard is your AAU coach. That definitely turns things up a couple of notches.”
Duffy recalls his thoughts on Nored showing up to live up to his coaching role during the hometown team’s Cinderella story.
“We had just watched [Butler] on TV in the tournament and we’re practicing in some junior high auxiliary gym,” Duffy said. “It’s like, ‘Don’t you have more important stuff to do than be here with us?’”
For those around the program at the time, it was no surprise that Nored was ready to show up and lead his players in the midst of co-writing one of college basketball’s most unlikely stories.
To former Bulldog Nick Gardner, the radio color commentator for Butler men’s basketball, Nored’s character immediately stood out upon his arrival on campus.
“It was pretty evident when you first met Ron what a quality person he was,” Nick said. “He’s a natural leader.”
Nored’s leadership quickly became evident not only to Team Truth, but also to his Bulldog teammates, including now-assistant coach Emerson Kampen.
“You could tell right away that he had a passion to lead people,” Kampen said. “I think any of us that were playing with him even his freshman year, we just said, ‘This guy’s gonna be a coach one day.’”
Of course, Nored jumped into coaching quickly with Team Truth. That was followed by a post-grad stint as the head coach of Brownsburg High School before launching into over a decade of collegiate, G-League and NBA jobs.
Nored carried this excess of experience with him, all the way back to the hardwood he made his name on. His stops along the way have served as building blocks to help him develop both as a leader and a basketball coach.
“I’ve been a head coach at a lot of different levels and so I’ve been able to try things,” Nored said. “Our baseline out-of-bounds play that we ran [with Team Truth], we run a version of that now [at Butler].”
While not all of Nored’s traits and strategies made it back to Hinkle from the middle school gyms Team Truth practiced in, some things never change.
“I went and met up with Tyler at halftime [of the IU game], and he was like, ‘Dude, all his mannerisms and everything from 15 years ago on the sidelines of Team Truth, he’s still doing it,’” Greg said. “There was one specific play where Butler missed a box-out and he’s hitting his butt. He was very clearly telling guys, ‘Get a body on him. Box him out.’ He definitely yelled that at us several times.”
Fifteen years separate Nored’s competitive coaching debut from his first game with his dream job. Hinkle’s rafters have grown more crowded. The home team competes in a tougher conference. He coaches college basketball, not AAU. But Ronald Nored is still the same guy with a love for basketball so great that he spent his free time coaching while he embarked on a national title run.