INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Butler fired coach LaVall Jordan on Friday after two straight losing seasons and a second consecutive finish near the bottom of the Big East Conference.
The Bulldogs were 14-19 this season and tied for ninth in the Big East at 6-14.
“After a thorough evaluation, I have come to the decision that a change in the leadership of our men’s basketball program is needed,” athletic director Barry Collier said. “These decisions are never easy, but are incredibly more difficult when it impacts a high-character Bulldog who has represented our university so well for many years.”
Jordan played for the Bulldogs from 1998-2001, and Collier was his coach his first three years. Jordan was a starting guard his last two seasons, earning all-conference honors, and he made four coaching stops over a decade before Collier hired him as head coach in 2017.
The Bulldogs played in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and were expected to make it back in 2020 before the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jordan was unable to return the Bulldogs to the unprecedented heights achieved under Brad Stevens, who led the team to surprise appearances in the 2010 and 2011 national championship games when the school was in the Horizon League.
Jordan had just one winning record in Big East play, and the Bulldogs lost six of their last seven games. Seven of their Big East regular-season losses this season were by 15 points or more, including a 40-point road defeat to a Villanova team reached this weekend’s Final Four.
Jordan is only the second Butler men’s basketball coach to get fired in nearly a century. The other was Joe Sexson, who was let go in 1989.
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