Brad Stevens: Supports Butler, sympathizes with Brandon Miller

Back in Indianapolis for the first time since the latest coaching changes at the university he led to national prominence, Brad Stevens said he supports what's happening with Butler's basketball program.

Last week, Chris Holtmann was named head coach after serving the first part of this season as the interim to Brandon Miller, the former Bulldog who spent one season coaching the program. The reason for Miller's departure has not been explained.

"The one program that I follow is Butler, and we follow it religiously," Stevens said at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where his Boston Celtics face the Indiana Pacers tonight at 7. "We see as many games as we can, and I was able to go over there for a minute yesterday."

Stevens attended a ceremony honoring longtime sports information director Jim McGrath, who is retiring. Stevens called McGrath "the best ever."

"First and foremost, my heart and my sympathies are with Brandon and his family," Stevens said. "I'm very excited that they had a person like Chris there (on staff) and the staff that was there with (assistant coaches) Michael Lewis and Terry Johnson. Those guys who were there with me really handled a tough situation fantastic, and I'm really happy that's going to be a long-term thing now with Chris at the helm.

"I thought all those guys did just a marvelous job. I'm happy for them and you can bet I want them to beat 'X' (Xavier) tomorrow."

Stevens said he has been in contact with the Miller family and that he hopes Miller is able to feel part of the Butler basketball family.

Stevens spoke prior to the Celtics' pre-game practice. The Pacers did not have a similar activity, so it's not known if Roy Hibbert will play following a sprained left ankle in Wednesday night's loss at Golden State.

"He killed us at our place," Stevens said of the Nov. 7 meeting in which Hibbert had 22 points and 11 rebounds. "He is a two-time All-Star center, he's a post threat, he's a post defender, he's a really valuable player, and they've played well with him. They've played well without him, too.

"They play a little differently when they don't have him, and so whether he plays or not we're expecting to have to play exceptionally well to have a chance (to win). This is a team that has played at the highest level when fully staffed, and they've played some of their best basketball in the past two months when backs are against the wall without as many guys. They got to Dallas without Roy, without (others), and they win.

"This is a deep team and their younger guys are getting a lot better."

Stevens was happy with the physicality his team played with in winning at Brooklyn on Wednesday night.

"We played pretty well on Wednesday," he said. "I'm hopeful we can bottle the effort because it was one of our better games with regard to just playing one way for 48 minutes. Even when things didn't go well we didn't change; we just kept going.

"We didn't play perfect offensively – we missed a lot of point-blank shots – but we just kind of grinded it out. That's a good thing to see. This team needed to do that to be honest."

Both the Pacers (14-23) and Celtics (12-21) are 1.5 games out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Celtics at Pacers, 7 p.m. Friday, FSI