From the moment he was hired in March 2013, University of South Alabama men’s basketball head coach Matthew Graves made it a top priority to “change the culture” at South Alabama.
After spending 17 years at Butler University as both a student-athlete and coach, Graves set out to take the Butler philosophy and install that in the Jaguar men’s basketball program.
Entering his fourth season, Graves is laying the foundation for success.
From revamping academics and a greater involvement in community service activities, to restructuring off-season workouts and practices to emphasize skill development, to the style of play during games, every aspect of the program has been evaluated and fine-tuned to Graves’ standards.
The process aims to establish long-term prosperity both on and off the court, contending for championships while graduating student-athletes year in, and year out.
Overhauling the academic program resulted in the team’s highest GPA in over five years in 2013-14, and both seniors, Antoine Allen and Augustine Rubit earned their degrees.
On the court, his first year in charge resulted in an 11-20 record with a roster that included 10 first- or second-year players, with inexperience rearing its ugly head in the 11 times the Jags let a second-half lead slip away. However, Rubit set both school and conference records for rebounds and became the first Jaguar to earn All-Sun Belt recognition four times.
Rubit finished in the top 10 in five different individual categories and ranked third in the league in rebounding (9.4 rpg) and sixth in scoring (17.0 ppg).
Graves’ style of play and work on the court helped Barrington Stevens III go from a 0.7 assist-turnover ratio his freshman campaign to a 2.0 as a sophomore, the best ratio by a South Alabama player since 1988-89.
His second season may have only resulted in one more win overall, but the improvements on the court were noticeable. The Jaguars’ increased conference wins from five to nine and earned the No. 6 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament, a year after failing to qualify.
After a slow start to the campaign, South Alabama finished with 10 wins over the final 21 contests and won the program’s first SBC Tournament game since 2012.
In conference games, the Jags were fourth in scoring (72.4 ppg), second in field goal percentage (.454) and first in 3-point percentage (.369). The team improved by almost six points per contest in the final 22 games, and increased its field goal and 3-point percentages by 5.7 and 5.8 percent, respectively.
A major driving force in that improvement was the Ken Williams, who earned all-Sun Belt distinction after averaging 15.7 points — eighth in the league — and converting 2.6 treys per outing, which was second. In league games, he was fourth in scoring average (18.0 ppg) and 3-point percentage (.403), and first in 3s per game (2.8).
The 2015-16 season saw Williams earn a Third-Team All-Sun Belt nod and the Jaguars improve their win total yet again to 14. USA advanced to the Sun Belt Quarterfinals and won a game in the tournament in back-to-back years for the first time since 2010.
Graves spent the previous 10 seasons as an assistant on the staff at Butler, where his efforts helped the Bulldogs advance to back-to-back NCAA Tournament championship games and appear in the event in six of the previous seven years.
During his tenure at Butler, Graves helped the program to an overall record of 244-98 (71.3%), a berth in national postseason tournaments each of the last eight seasons and eight straight years with 20-plus victories. Following the 2009-10 campaign that saw the Bulldogs finish 33-5 after falling to Duke 61-59 in the national title contest, he was promoted to associate head coach; in his first year in that role, Butler returned to the NCAA Tournament championship game after defeating Pittsburgh, Florida and Wisconsin — the first, second and fourth seeds — in the Southeast Region while going on to post a 28-10 record.
In 2012-13, the Bulldogs’ first in the Atlantic 10 Conference, they went 27-9 including an 11-5 mark in league action. In addition to advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, Butler defeated two of the four No. 1 seeds in the event — Indiana and Gonzaga — during the regular season.
Graves first helped lead Butler back to postseason play in 2005-06, when the school went 20-13 after earning a first-round win in the National Invitation Tournament. The following year, the Bulldogs won the NIT Season Tip-Off and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual champion Florida en route to a final record of 29-7. Butler finished 30-4 after claiming the Horizon League Tournament title and a first-round NCAA win in 2007-08, advancing to the NCAA Tournament again the next season while posting a 26-6 mark.
While on the Butler staff, Graves was listed No. 2 on CollegeInsider.com’s ranking of top 25 mid-major assistants in 2009 while the previous year FoxSports.com recognized him as one of the top 10 mid-major assistants in the country.
Graves started as an assistant coach at North Central and Ben Davis High Schools in Indianapolis, joining the Bulldog staff as coordinator of men’s basketball operations in 2001. During his first two seasons at Butler, the Bulldogs won 53 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2003 NCAA Tournament.
As a player, Graves lettered four years at Butler and was part of a program that posted a 95-54 (63.8%) mark while he was in school. He was team captain each of his final two seasons, when the Bulldogs went 23-10 and 22-11, respectively, after winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Graves was the third-leading scorer on the team in 1996-97 when Butler made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 35 years, while as a senior he was chosen the squad’s most valuable player and was named to the MCC all-tournament team after recording 18 points in the championship contest.
He scored 994 points during his career, and still ranks among the top 10 in school history with 175 three-point field goals and an 84.6 free-throw percentage. Graves’ 42 points his senior year against Cleveland State is the fifth-highest total in a game in Bulldog history.
Off the court, he was named to the GTE Academic All-District V team his final year and was also an academic all-league selection.
Graves earned his bachelor’s degree from Butler in education (chemistry) in 1998 and his master’s degree from the school in 2003 in education administration. He and his wife Susan have two daughters, Abigail and Lillian.
