Butler parts ways with HC LaVall Jordan after five seasons

The Butler men's basketball program is looking for a new head coach after they parted ways with their leader of the past five seasons on Friday.

"After a thorough evaluation, I have come to the decision that a change in the leadership of our men's basketball program is needed," Butler Vice President/Director of Athletics 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. I want to thank LaVall for his dedication to our program, and we wish him and his family all the best moving forward."

Jordan — who played with the Bulldogs from 1997 to 2001 — was first an assistant at Butler from 2003 to 2007, before joining Iowa as an assistant coach from 2007 to 2010. He was then an assistant under John Beilein at Michigan from 2010 to 2016 before landing his first head-coaching gig with Milwaukee for the 2016-2017 campaign.

The Albion, Mich., native went 11-24 with the Panthers before re-joining Butler as their head coach in June 2017. The Bulldogs finished 21-14 under Jordan in his first year at the helm, made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed and defeated No. 7 Arkansas in the first round before falling to No. 2 Purdue 76-73 in the round of 32.

The group regressed in year two with their new coach — going 16-17 — but bounced back to finish 22-9 in the 2019-2020 season before the NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Butler went 10-15 two years ago and 14-19 during the 2021-2022 campaign, giving Jordan a current 94-98 career coaching record.