Alex Barlow hired to work under Brad Stevens with Celtics

Alex Barlow is going to the Boston Celtics.

Barlow, who chose Butler four years ago because he wanted to learn basketball from Brad Stevens and follow Stevens into the coaching ranks, has followed Stevens into the NBA. Barlow's first day on Stevens' staff was Monday in Boston, where Barlow has started working for the Celtics as a video assistant.

What the job entails exactly, well, it's too early for Barlow to say. He spent Monday meeting people and asking questions and marveling at how things have worked out almost exactly as he had hoped – even if they've not worked out at all as he had planned.

"Two years ago, when (Stevens) left to work for the Celtics, I didn't know what was going to happen," Barlow said. "I don't know that I could have told you that I'd work for the Celtics out of college. Two years later that opportunity has presented itself, and it's everything I could have asked for."

Even before his first day in the profession, Barlow was seen as a rising star in coaching. His coach at Butler the past two seasons, Chris Holtmann, says Barlow will make an exceptional college coach – which is the same thing Barlow's high school coach at Cincinnati Moeller, Carl Kremer, has believed since Barlow was a prep senior.

"He was born to be a great coach," Kremer told the Star in March. "I'm going to retire down the road and watch Alex coach college basketball."

"He's going to be a great coach someday," Holtmann said.

A former walk-on, Barlow became an above-average Big East point guard at Butler, averaging 8.9 points, four rebounds and 2.6 assists per game as a senior and finishing third on the school's all-time steals list.

He also was an academic All-American who was voted by coaches, media and fans as the Division I Senior CLASS award winner, given to a player for excellence in four areas: classroom, community, character and competition.

To that, add a fifth 'c' – coaching. Barlow wants to be excellent at it. That's why he picked Butler, and Brad Stevens, four years ago.

"You can just tell there's something special about him," Barlow said of Stevens. "It was something I wanted to do, to work under him and to be able to learn even more from him. It's kind of neat how things work out sometimes."

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel