Senior Day at Hinkle Fieldhouse

Tonight I'll be attending my second straight Senior Day at Hinkle Fieldhouse, honoring one of Butler basketball's most beloved players in recent history: Ronald Nored. For a little background on Nored, here's an excerpt from a piece by ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach, written after the historic run to the 2010 national championship game:

Nored was an all-state point guard as a senior at Homewood High School in Homewood, Ala. He verbally committed to play for Western Kentucky, but changed his mind after Hilltoppers coach Darrin Horn left for South Carolina after the 2007-08 season.

Butler coach Brad Stevens didn't wait long to start recruiting Nored. After Stevens learned Nored was back on the market, he drove 490 miles to his home. Nored had met Stevens only once before, when the then-Bulldogs assistant coach tossed Nored out of Butler's famed Hinkle Fieldhouse. Nored's uncle, Leonard Williams, had taken his nephew there to shoot baskets while he was visiting his grandparents during spring break. Stevens informed them the court was off-limits to non-players.

"Promise me one thing," Stevens told Nored during his recruiting visit. "If you don't sign with Butler, don't tell anyone that happened."

Nored ended up choosing to play for the Bulldogs. His grandmother hoped he would attend Harvard, which offered him an academic scholarship. In-state schools such as Samford University and South Alabama recruited Nored, but bigger schools like Alabama and Auburn weren't interested.

(Admittedly, I had no idea that he was offered a scholarship at Harvard.)

As a freshman, Nored appeared in all 32 games for the 26-6 Bulldogs, a squad that lost to LSU (75-71) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. From there, it seemed certain that Nored would captain the Butler ship for the remainder of his career, serving as their defensive leader. During Butler's (33-5) improbable run towards an appearance in the Final Four -- played in the school's host city of Indianapolis -- Nored established himself as one of the nation's best perimeter defenders. No matter who Butler faced during their magical run, you knew that Nored would get the call when it came time to shut down the opposition's best perimeter player, even if it meant giving up a few inches. Nored tallied 7 points and 6 rebounds in Butler's 2-point loss to Duke in the 2010 national championship game. As a sophomore, with Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard returning next seasons, the future was bright.

Not uncommon in college basketball after a strong sophomore campaign, Nored experienced some growing pains as a junior. Gordon Hayward, Butler's established go-to scorer, departed early for the NBA, and it was clear early on that Butler was struggling to find its new identity. Butler started 4-4 last season, and Nored -- who missed two games w/ an injury -- talled a single point during a three-game stretch against Ball State, Siena, and Duke. As the season wore on, Nored found himself in foul trouble more often than not - perhaps a little too confident in his own defensive accolades from the season prior. Eventually, Nored would find himself coming off the bench, no longer the starting point guard for Brad Stevens' Butler Bulldogs. In fact, he came off the bench for Butler's final 11 games of the season, including post-season play, through Butler's even more improbable run to a second straight NCAA championship game appearance (where they lost to UConn in one of the most disappointing sports moments I've ever experienced as a live witness).

Ronald Nored's senior season -- without Matt Howard and former classmate Shelvin Mack -- wasn't expected to be another banner year for the Butler Bulldogs. The team opened the season with a loss to Evansville, along with other non-conference losses to Louisville, Indiana, Valparaiso, Xavier, Ball State, and Gonzaga. At 5-7 overall, it looked like the "bridge year" that many anticipated. The one constant for the Bulldogs appeared to be Nored running the point, playing defense, and serving as the team's emotional leader. Limited offensively, and without experienced weapons around him like Hayward, Mack, Howard, etc., the offense often slowed to a crawl, with Butler struggling to score in any manner on the offensive end of the court. Beginning with a late-December win at Stanford, Nored and the Bulldogs seemed to turn the corner a bit. The senior point guard's next 11 games resulted in a scoring average of 11.8 (double his career average). In a win over Loyola, Nored tallied 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists. During Butler's current 4-game win streak, he's averaging 7.25 assists per game (he had a career high 10 assists in last Saturday's Bracketbuster victory over Indiana State).

Granted, this season is not over, but with two games remaining, and Butler needing to win the Horizon League Tournament to appear in this year's NCAA Tournament, most do not have visions of a third straight Final Four. But that shouldn't serve as a reason for disappointment; few teams in the history of the sport have been able to make it to back-to-back Final Fours (let alone national finals). Ronald Nored will leave Butler with a degree and no less than two Final Four banners credited to his name (typically, credentials like that apply to someone departing Duke or Michigan State). But he also departs Butler as a role model, serving as a student-teacher for third grade students in the Indianapolis area. Widely known as a spiritual individual, Ronald Nored has left his mark on the Butler basketball program, leading by example both on and off the court.