Butler’s Big Weekend
Former WU Asst. coach hired as pro hoops coach
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Former West Virginia basketball star Da'Sean Butler certainly had a weekend to remember. On Friday, Butler announced that he had been hired as an assistant coach in the NBA G-League and on Saturday he was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2020.
Butler appeared alongside the other 10 members of the 2020 class prior to WVU's home football game against Virginia Tech Saturday and spoke to the assembled crowd about what the honor meant to him.
"I came to WVU as a kid not knowing anything about the Old Gold and Blue, the state and the people in it," Butler said. "If you fast forward to now, those three things mean the world to me. Having the chance to wear the number one jersey, playing in front of the best fans you could play in front of and meeting those same fans and being around them was a great experience."
Butler is the winningest player in WVU men's basketball history, collecting 107 wins from 2007-10. He finished his career third all-time in points scored by a Mountaineer and was the star player on WVU's Final Four team in 2010 in the midst of three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
Despite that, Butler said none of those accolades or accomplishments are what he cherishes most about his time in Morgantown.
"A lot of people wanted me to come up here and talk about scoring a lot of points and game winners and the Garden, but when I think of my favorite times, all I can think about is arguing with John Flowers everyday about nonsense," Butler said. "Or playing volleyball at The District on Saturdays in the summer, Wellington Smith buying me my very first wallet that wasn't velcro, Smalligan flipping the tire, Jamie Smalligan getting carried on a gurney, Smalligan on a treadmill, actually a lot of the fun times were Jamie Smalligan getting in trouble and being punished for doing things he wasn't supposed to be doing.
"I was an only child, I had no brothers and my teammates filled that void for me. You taught me so many things, I learned so much from you guys."
Butler grew up in Newark, New Jersey, where his love of athletics and basketball were cultivated by his parents.
"I learned to compete from my mother," Butler started. "Me and her would race every day from the grocery store back to the house and I would lose. She was awesome at rubbing that in my face so that pushed me to compete. I learned how to play the game of basketball from my dad and just how much effort it takes. He wasn't a basketball player, had never played before but went to Barnes and Noble on Saturdays and read basketball books and would take me to the park when I wanted to go and put me through drills. He taught me a lot about the game and made me love the game."
Following his days in Morgantown, Butler played professionally for nearly a decade. He spent time in the NBA's development league, Latvia, Belgium, France, Germany and Israel. Following the 2019-20 season, Butler decided to begin his coaching career and signed as an assistant at Wheeling University under head coach Chris Richardson.
"I really thought that was the right move for our staff at the time and looking back, that was 1,000% correct," Richardson said. "He was just a tremendous addition to our program, someone that not only understands how to win and can teach the game, but someone with his character, he's a man of great character. He is a phenomenal teacher of basketball but what his real gift is is building relationships with people. You combine that with his basketball knowledge and it's easy to say he had a tremendous impact on our program even though he was only here last season."
With his move to the G-League, Butler will end up having spent just one season in Wheeling, helping the Cardinals to a 6-his new opportunity.
"It's tough to see someone that you care about and has been a big part of what you're doing leave, but everybody was so tremendously happy for him to have this opportunity because his dream is to coach at the pro level," Richardson said. "He's got a chance to realize part of that dream and get closer to his ultimate dream, which is being a professional head coach. I think it's safe to say everybody's rooting for Da'Sean and excited for his next steps."
Richardson said Butler's long playing career has almost perfectly prepared him for coaching.
"I you look at Da'Sean's career as a player, he's been the star, he's been the wide-eyed freshman, as a professional he's been the go-to guy, he's been the guy that might have to come off the bench, he's been the guy who might be starter but not the main option and he's been the older guy on the team that's there more to help guide the younger players even if it doesn't mean a ton of minutes for him," Richardson said. "He's had about every role on a team that you could have, which is one reason I think he can relate to anybody on the bench. He really was tremendous in all aspects of being a collegiate coach."
With the Cardinals already a month into their preseason, Richardson said Butler initially felt bad about leaving to take a new job. An opportunity like that, however, was not something Richardson was going to let Butler pass on.
"He and I were very open in our communication about these opportunities that were coming and this one was a great, great opportunity for him," Richardson said. "I joked with him the other day when he came in to tell me, I said you've got to take it, if you don't you're fired. He felt bad about having to tell our team after we're a month into the preseason, but we were all just so happy for him that I think he knows he's got a campus full of family and fans here that can't wait to see him continue to soar in his career."
"Before I leave to live out my coaching dreams, I just wanted to tell everybody here I love you," Butler said to conclude his speech Saturday. "I love West Virginia, I love my Mountaineers, I love my state and no matter where I go, once a Mountaineer, always a Mountaineer."
Hometown Hero
Joining Butler in the 2020 Hall of Fame class was former WVU baseball standout Jedd Gyorko. A native of Morgantown, Gyorko was selected in the 2010 MLB draft and played for the San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers during an eight-year MLB career. Gyorko returned to Morgantown this summer to coach the West Virginia Black Bears in the MLB Draft League. He told a story Saturday about how important his home has always been to him.
"When I was in high school going through the recruiting process I went on a visit to a top-25 school. I went up there and it was great," Gyroko recalled. "They offered me one of the biggest scholarships any position player has ever gotten and I was honored by it. I went home and went to high school the next day and was giving it a lot of thought. I went home and talked to my parents about it and said during my lunch break I called Coach (Greg) Van Zant and committed to West Virginia. They said I didn't really give that a lot of thought and I said that place is not home. Home is here, we still live here, built a house here, West Virginia and Morgantown is my home and I appreciate that."
Trailblazer Inducted
Also inducted into the hall of fame Saturday was the late Richard "Dick" Leftridge, the first black student-athlete to sign a grant-in-aid for a football scholarship at WVU in 1962. Aside from breaking the color barrier, Lefrdige, a native of Hinton, WV, is also WVU's highest all-time draft pick, being taken third overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1966 NFL Draft. He finished his college career with 1,701 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns.
WVU Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020
Richard "Dick" Leftridge – Football (1963-65)
John Rost – Rifle (1979-82)
Tony Robertson – Men's Basketball (1976-77)
John C. McGrath – Men's Soccer (1969-1995)
Janis Denis "JD" Drummonds – Women's Basketball (1980-81)
Tom Shafer – Baseball (1960-62)
Clara (Grandt) Santucci – Cross Country/Track (2005-10)
Janae (Cox) Asbury – Gymnastics (2004-07)
Ron Wolfley – Football (1981-84)
Jedd Gyorko – Baseball (2008-10)
Da'Sean Butler – Men's Basketball (2007-10)