Lewis cites career growth, Big Ten in leaving Butler for Nebraska

Michael Lewis was comfortable at Butler. Too comfortable, he decided.

Nebraska made it official by announcing Lewis as its newest assistant basketball coach. Although he acknowledged he would get a pay raise, he said leaving Butler is more about a new challenge, career growth and a return to the Big Ten.

“How that plays out, none of us can see in the future,” Lewis told IndyStar. “My gut was telling me that this was a move that could help me long term.”

Lewis, 38, was an assistant coach at Butler for five seasons, serving under Brad Stevens, Brandon Miller and Chris Holtmann. Lewis was offensive coordinator this season for the highest-scoring Butler team in 24 years (79.9 points a game) and has a reputation as an effective recruiter.

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He was an Indiana All-Star at Jasper High School and played in the Big Ten at Indiana from 1996-2000, setting a career record for assists that was broken this year by Yogi Ferrell.

“For me, at this time, to have an opportunity to be in the Big Ten Conference is very appealing to me,” Lewis said. “This is a program that’s moving up. Also, especially as an assistant coach, and you see it with head coaches, the shelf life with coaches at certain places is getting shorter.”

Nebraska has never won a game in the NCAA tournament (0-7) and made the field in 2014 for the first time in 16 years. The Cornhuskers were 16-18 this season and 6-12 in the Big Ten. Coincidentally, Butler athletic director Barry Collier is a former Nebraska coach (2000-06).

Butler has made the NCAA tournament eight times in the past 10 years, three times with Lewis on staff.

Lewis and Holtmann have stated staff chemistry was exceptional. Lewis said the staff bonded after Miller unexpectedly went on medical leave in October 2014 and Holtmann took over as interim and then head coach.

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Lewis said he will miss Hinkle Fieldhouse and the players he coached. Getting congratulatory texts from so many of them, he said, only made the decision more difficult.

“It sounds cliché-ish, but Butler is a special place. It really is,” he said. “Unless you’re there and experience it, I’m not sure you fully understand it. Especially the people.”

He and his wife, Nichole, have two daughters, Avery and Emma.

Lewis was previously an assistant at Eastern Illinois (2005-11) and Stephen F. Austin (2004-05), and a graduate assistant under Bob Knight at Texas Tech.

To fill Lewis' spot at Butler, Holtmann could promote one of two former Bulldogs players, coordinator of basketball operations Brandon Crone or basketball analyst Emerson Kampen. The longest-tenured coach on staff is Terry Johnson, 42, who has been with the Bulldogs since 2004, with the exception of one season at IPFW.

Call IndyStar reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.