ST. JOHN – Brad Stevens recruited him.

Brandon Miller signed him.

Chris Holtmann coached him.

LaVall Jordan inherited him.

Through all of Butler’s basketball's coaching changes, Tyler Wideman has stood as tall and immovable as a sequoia. He was a Butler player before arriving at Butler.

His high school coach, Lake Central’s Dave Milausnic, said Wideman had intangibles. Students and teachers embraced him. So did lunchroom workers, janitors and secretaries. He cared about his teammates, and about winning.

“You talk about the Butler Way, he went there already having that team mentality,” Milausnic said. “I think that’s what attracted him to Butler.”

Not that Wideman was incapable of change. He had to change.

He was so big for his age — he was 6-3 in fifth grade and dunked in seventh grade — that his mother took a birth certificate to summer tournaments to prove he was eligible. Purdue coach Matt Painter started checking him out in the eighth grade. Other recruiters envisioned Wideman growing into a 7-foot center.

Did not happen. He topped out at 6-8. Did not matter.

He became mobile enough that Milausnic called him Big Cat. The nickname stuck. In AAU, high school and then college, Wideman has not backed down from anyone.

Big Cat has opposed big men such as Jahlil Okafor, Caleb Swanigan, Trey Lyles, Myles Turner and Dakari Johnson — all now making millions in the NBA. Wideman did not always win the statistical matchup, but his team usually won the games.

One other note: Before this season, Wideman set a Butler record with 30 reps of 185 pounds on the bench press. That exceeds the record for the NBA Draft Combine: 27 by Jason Keep in 2003.

“Nothing can intimidate that kid at Butler right now,” said Terrence Wilburn, who coached Wideman on the Chicago Meanstreets summer team. “Because he’s faced those guys since eighth grade.”

Butler needs Wideman to change again, from quiet teammate to vocal leader. He can do it. He has done it.

When he addressed Lake Central teammates, Milausnic said, they listened. No “phony stuff,” though. Wilburn has seen Wideman come to the bench “and get into the guys pretty good.”

Big Cat would rather play like a lion than roar like one. He and Kelan Martin are the only seniors on a team made up mostly of sophomores and freshmen. Wideman began transitioning into a leadership role during an August trip to Spain … but no, he is not changing who he is.

“I don’t have to step outside of myself and try to talk too much or do too much extra stuff,” he said. “Just lead by example and help out guys however I can.”

***

Wideman was born to a single mother in Harvey, Ill. His mother, Cammy Wideman, and father, Robin Howard, were both high school basketball players in south suburban Chicago. Wideman and his older sister, Ashley, later moved with their mother to Merrillville, Crown Point and then Schererville.

Cammy said her son was so candid that he would “tell on himself” if he misbehaved in preschool. Behavior was rarely a problem, although one incident redirected his life. On a dare, he jumped over a chair at a parent/teacher conference. A youth coach suggested Wideman play basketball, and from fifth grade on, that’s what he did.

“Couldn’t make a layup. Didn’t have any work habits,” Wilburn recalled. “It took a couple of years to handle him and get him to understand what working hard meant. He had a lot of baby fat. Once he figured out that he wanted to do it, it was an amazing road after that.”

Wideman stayed with the same group of boys, many earning Division I scholarships, including Phoenix Suns guard Tyler Ulis (Kentucky) and Paul White (Georgetown/Oregon). The team changed names a couple of times but was desirable to tournament organizers.

In a tournament in Norfolk, Va., against the New York Gauchos, Wilburn challenged Wideman to neutralize Johnson, who went on to Kentucky and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Games like that caused Wideman to change his mind-set.

Wilburn said Wideman’s response was: “These guys weren’t better than me. I’m right there with them.”

When Wideman arrived at Lake Central, he weighed 280 pounds. So the coach was not worried about how well he could play, but how long. Two minutes? A quarter? A half?

“That was really the battle for Tyler,” Milausnic said.

Wideman and Glenn Robinson III, who went on to Michigan and the Indiana Pacers, were Lake Central teammates for two seasons. The Indians were 21-2 heading into the 2012 regional, where they were upset by South Bend Adams 76-72, ending Robinson’s high school career.

Two years later, Lake Central returned to the regional but lost a late lead to Penn. What happened at the buzzer is etched in Milausnic’s memory and preserved in a photograph on his office wall.

“I can see it in slow motion and I can remember, ‘Is he going to dunk it?’” the coach said. “I asked him about it. ‘I thought really quick about dunking it but was afraid I was going to miss and what you were going to say if I missed it.’ He just tapped it in.”

That 57-55 victory sent Lake Central into the semistate, in which it beat Homestead and Swanigan, 79-57. In their first state finals since 1984, the Indians lost to Tech and Lyles, 63-59. Wideman missed part of that game because of a gash that required bandaging. Lake Central trailed by 23 in the third quarter before a comeback led by Wideman, who finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and set a Class 4A record with 9-of-11 shooting.

He came out with more than a scar near his eyebrow. That night — and a 15-point, 18-rebound game for the Indiana All-Stars against Kentucky — reinforced what his coach thought all along.

“When your best player is as unselfish as him, the team that year was just magical,” Milausnic said.

After Big East games, opposing coaches often mention Wideman, whose contributions are not always evident in box scores. Last season, he averaged 7.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and shot 61.5 percent.

A college recruiter once told Milausnic that Wideman communicated better on defense than his own players. During televised games, the Lake Central coach recognizes Wideman’s voice, picked up by microphones.

Jordan has called him one of Butler’s brightest players, especially in directing teammates on defense. Practice with the Indiana All-Stars underscored Wideman’s hoops IQ. An All-Stars coach, Crown Point’s Clint Swan, was explaining an offensive set. That is your “Texas” play, Wideman told him.

“So he remembered coach Swann’s play name from our scouting report and what the play was,” Milausnic said.

***

Wideman rations words but tells stories with tattoos.

One is devoted to Annye McDonald, his great-grandmother, and another to his grandmother, Felicia Wideman, who died from cancer in 2010 at age 60. They were profoundly influential. Another tattoo, extending from right elbow to wrist, is of a tiger. (Remember: Big Cat.)

Those close to Wideman appreciate his sense of humor. His mother said he is wise for his age, perhaps because he enjoys talking to older people. Yet he acknowledged “very chill” is his default setting.

“I always say I’d be fine just sitting in my room with a couple of dogs next to me,” he said.

Jordan will be fine if the Dawgs continue to follow Wideman.

When the new coach arrived in mid-June, he already had a bond with his new player from having recruited him while an assistant coach at Michigan. Coincidentally, the Jordan and Wideman families once lived in the same Merrillville apartment complex at the same time.

The 240-pound Wideman, an exercise science major, showed how serious he was about this season in those weightlifting numbers. Besides the 30 reps, he set another Butler record with a bench press of 350 pounds.

Only other numbers of interest are on the all-time Butler wins board. The Bulldogs have gone 70-31 in three years, and six senior classes have won 95 or more.

“We’ve been talking to him about being kind of that charismatic connector for this group,” Jordan said. “It’s something he wants. Sometimes guys don’t want to lead. So it’s something he wants to do, something we’re challenging him to do.

“He’ll ask questions about what we want from him as a staff, how he could communicate with his teammates. It’s been encouraging to go through this with him and walk down this path together.”

If there is victory at the end, Wideman’s footprints will be all along that path.

MORE BUTLER:

► 3 key takeaways from Butler victory over Lincoln Memorial

► Building the best Butler basketball lineup from the past 25 years

► Butler basketball recruiting: Dawgs still looking for first 2018 commit

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