Gregg Doyel | IndyStar

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INDIANAPOLIS – When Butler athletic director Barry Collier hires a coach, you assume he gets it right because he always gets it right. But still we need to see it, you know? Some kid named Brad Stevens will work out because Barry says he’ll work out, but we need to see it. Same for an assistant named, hmm … Chris Holtmann. Barry likes him? OK, we like him too. But we need to see it.

In June, Barry Collier hired beloved former player LaVall Jordan. Sounds good, but … you know. We need to see it.

We just saw it.

Butler did one of those Butler things on Saturday, beating No. 1 Villanova 101-93 at the craziest Hinkle Fieldhouse I’ve ever seen, but a Butler thing can only happen if the guy on the sideline is a Butler-worthy coach. And apparently, Jordan is.

It’s a high standard the guy has to reach: Collier and Thad Matta and Todd Lickliter and Brad Stevens — let’s say that name again, because it’s that good: Brad Stevens — and then Holtmann (after the Brandon Miller hiccup). Imagine being the poor sap who has to follow in those footsteps. Jordan was the sap and he inherited the team at a terrible time, middle of June. He lost two of Holtmann’s recruits in the transition, struggled on the Class of 2018 recruiting trail, then lost three nonconference games by double-digits. Butler fans weren’t entirely pleased. Some of them were making noise on social media. It happens.

It can stop happening.

Matt Kryger/IndyStar

The past week has been a breakthrough for this Butler team, which means a breakthrough for this first-year Butler coach. Before Saturday’s game even tipped off, Butler already had posted one of the more remarkable victories of this college basketball season, a 20-point comeback at Georgetown, its fourth comeback win of at least 15 points in the 2017 calendar year. Falling behind by that many points, no, that’s not great. But rallying? Four times? That’s impressive.

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But this win Saturday was a joke, the best kind of joke, the kind that sends the crowd home chuckling happily. And these were 2½ intense hours, the standing-room-only crowd of 9,244 thrilled at times, angry at times, loud at all times — and stoked to a frenzy at halftime by a college kid who nailed a half-court shot, winning a year’s supply of Penn Station subs and celebrating by sliding headfirst across the court.

Poor Villanova had no chance on a day Butler made 13 of its final 14 shots from 3-point range — a joke, I tell you — and this was a loaded Villanova team that came into Hinkle. The Wildcats were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country, with only one of their first 13 opponents staying within eight points, two within nine points, and the rest swarmed by double-digits. The Wildcats shot 53.5 percent from the floor on Saturday, committed just four turnovers and made a dozen 3-pointers.

And Butler blew them away.

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The final margin was eight, but with 10½ minutes to play Butler was winning by 23 points. The Bulldogs outrebounded the (much) bigger, (much, much) more athletic Wildcats 37-26 and didn’t fold when Villanova rallied late, cutting the margin to six. In the final 63 seconds, Butler made its last two shots from the floor and all six of its free throws.

“We knew they wouldn’t quit,” Jordan said of the 2016 NCAA champion Wildcats. “They kept fighting, but we’ve got some fight in us, too.”

Lord do they ever. Late in the first half when Villanova was throwing haymakers — a breakaway dunk by Jalen Brunson, a 3-pointer from Omari Spellman, another 3 from Donte DiVincenzo, and another from Brunson — Butler was fighting back.

Paul Jorgensen hit from 25 feet, then made another 3 from the corner. Kamar Baldwin hit one 3, then another. Now Jorgensen is crossing half-court, having made two in a row, and pulls up from 35 feet. No, I’m serious. And down it went, a heat-check for the ages, a heat-check from a junior transfer who had averaged 4.3 points in two seasons George Washington.

HE STARTED PULLING UP FROM THE DAWG pic.twitter.com/xoF1cWzAOO — Dakota Crawford (@DakotaCrawford_) December 30, 2017

But Jorgensen was pulling up from 35 feet because he was hot, and because that’s what LaVall Jordan has done for this team.

We’re all learning about Jordan in his first season as the Butler coach. We knew him around these parts as a starting guard from 1998-2001 and rising star assistant from 2004-07. But that big chair, it’s not like any other. It doesn’t change who you are — it reveals who you are — and Jordan is showing himself to be a coach his players want desperately not to let down. Butler’s most recent loss was the one that made (some of) its fan the unhappiest, a nationally televised 82-67 drubbing to Purdue on Dec. 16 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. After that game, when Butler committed 17 turnovers and allowed the Boilermakers to shoot at least 50 percent in each half, Jordan studied the stat sheet and knew where to point the finger:

At himself.

Jordan told his team he gave them the wrong game plan. Nobody from Butler was giving details Saturday — you never know, Butler and Purdue could meet again this season — but Jordan told his players that shoddy performance started with the coach, and gave them reasons why.

View | 33 Photos

Best photo from Butler's win over Villanova

You think players like that? They love that. And they respond by studying so much film on their own that, when this Villanova game rolled around on Saturday, Butler players like Kelan Martin (24 points, eight rebounds) and Tyler Wideman (six points, six rebounds) were calling out Villanova’s inbounds plays before they were happening.

Jordan is showing himself to be a player’s coach, a collaborator, but also the softest of hard-asses — a head coach who will make his players run the stairs at Hinkle for committing the sin of not believing in themselves.

Most famously, the Bulldogs were practicing about a month ago when someone swung the ball to Jorgensen, wide open on the wing, and Jorgensen — not far removed from a scoreless 16 minutes against Texas on Nov. 23 — passed it to somebody else.

Jordan can’t blow his whistle loud enough. He’s calling for someone to get on the court, anyone, and sending Jorgensen sprinting up the stairs.

Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Guess who’s been on a tear for the last month? Averaging 7.8 points per game and shooting 25 percent on 3-pointers through five games, Jorgensen has averaged 14.5 ppg over the last 10, shooting 47.6 percent on 3-pointers. Against Utah on Dec. 5 he tied his career high of 16 points, tied it again against Morehead State on Dec. 19, topped it with 18 against Western Illinois on Dec. 21, then smashed it Saturday with 23 against No. 1 Villanova.

Jorgensen did that. But also: LaVall Jordan did that.

“The biggest thing is they believe in us,” Jorgensen said. “As a player, I’ve been in different situations. To have a coach who believes in you and gives you confidence every day, it’s something I don’t take for granted because I know how special it is. Everybody doesn’t have that.”

What exactly does Butler have in LaVall Jordan? Don’t know for sure. It’s a story still being written, and we’re in the early chapters. But the plot is picking up speed. The victories are mounting now, and the pages aren’t the only thing starting to fly.