Brad Stevens is a former D-III player that didn't fall far from the tree. DePauw athletics file photo

A decade ago, Brad Stevens was one of the Division III student-athletes going pro in something other than sports. He had played four years at DePauw, earning an All-Conference nod in the ICAC and a degree in ecomonics, and it was the latter he was putting to use, as a marketing associate at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis.

But his heart was still in basketball, and the 1999 graduate left a career at the pharmaceutical company for coaching, soon landing a volunteer position at Butler, as coordinator of basketball operations. Todd Lickliter hired him as an assistant coach a year later and when Lickliter left for Iowa, Stevens was named head coach for the 2007-08 season.

Since then, he's become the youngest Division I coach to lead his team to a 30-win season in more than half a century, and only three coaches in D-I history posted more wins in their first season than Stevens did when Butler went 30-4. In Stevens' second year, with just one returning starter, Butler went 26-6. And this season sees the Bulldogs as the talk of the Final Four, the local team returning home and advancing to the national title game at 33-4.

Stevens played in all 101 games at DePauw, making 22 starts, averaging 7.8 points per game over his career.

Butler plays Duke for the national championship on Monday night from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.