'A blessing from God' - A.J. Graves surprises himself during his Butler hoops career

By B.J. Hargis BUTLER LEADER: White River Valley High School graduate A.J. Graves and his Butler Bulldogs will take part in the NCAA Tournament on Friday. The Bulldogs play South Alabama at 2:45 p.m. [Click to enlarge]

If he wanted to do so, he'd be forced to spend a lot of time announcing his accomplishments.

The Butler University senior has helped his Bulldogs to another NCAA Basketball Tournament appearance this season. A year ago they advanced to the Sweet 16.

The Bulldogs are a No. 7 seed this year and face No. 10 South Alabama (26-6) on Friday in Birmingham, Ala., at 2:45 p.m.

Graves, a White River Valley High School graduate, takes a 13.3 scoring average into Friday's game. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 11 in the nation by The Associated Press.

"My career has been a total surprise and a blessing from God. I knew that I was going to enjoy college, which I have, but to be able to have been ranked nationally consistently for two years in a row, have the most wins of any Butler team during the regular season, to have achieved all the other successes (both team and individual) blows my mind," Graves explained.

"It just goes to show that when you get the right group of people together that understand that the sum of the parts is more important than any individual part ... special things can be accomplished."

Graves, a 6-foot-1 guard from Switz City, tries not to think about this being his final season, and one more loss and his collegiate career is over.

"The only difference I feel this year is a raised level of urgency. This is my last opportunity to play in this tournament and I want to do the best I can. I want to enjoy every minute of it so that when I look back in 10-15 years, I can say to myself that I had no regrets," Graves said.

"It seems just like a few weeks ago I was stepping on campus trying to figure out where my classes were, learning how practices went, meeting new teammates and friends, etc. ... I don't think about that one loss and it's over because that's a negative way to look at the situation. I want to enjoy myself, my teammates, the fan support, the ride. If I focus on stuff that I can't control, then I lose sight of the important things such as doing my job for this team."

Matthew Graves, A.J.'s brother, has been an assistant coach with Butler since 2004. Before that he had a variety of administrative duties for the Bulldogs.

"It has been an unbelievable experience (coaching A.J.) since I didn't have a lot of opportunities to watch him or hang out with him growing up because I was still in college or coaching in Indianapolis," Matthew Graves said. "Being able to help him grow and develop as a player has made it a very worthwhile experience.

"His approach to the game is so even keel and his basketball IQ is extremely high ... that makes him such a special player. During his high school career, it was evident he had the ability to take over games in a way that would translate to the college level."

Matthew Graves is thankful for the opportunity to coach his brother, and also play with another brother, Andrew, with the Bulldogs.

"It is a very different experience because of the different type of relationship between player-player and player-coach. I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to spend time with both of them and have many fond memories that will last a lifetime."

Graves said the Bulldogs won't be in awe in this year's tournament because of last year's success.

"We are going to play our basketball and let everything else take care of itself," Graves said. "Because we have been there before, we won't have the awe factor this year. It's going to be easier to treat the next game just like it's the next game on our schedule."

Graves will graduate in May with a degree in mathematics and a minor in business administration.

"My plans are up in the air at the moment, but I plan to go to graduate school in hopes of becoming a biostatistician," Graves noted.