« Men’s Basketball 2009-10

Da'Sean Butler

School
West Virginia University
Position
Forward
Major
Multidisciplinary Studies
PPG
17.4
RPG
6.3
APG
3.3

Classroom

Butler will graduate in May 2010 with major concentrations in theater, communication studies and sociology.  He is a member of the Athletic Director’s honor roll and would like to pursue a career in sports broadcasting.  Outside of basketball, Butler is very ambitious about many endeavors and spends much of his free time writing books and screenplays in various genres.  As part of his theater curriculum, he has acted in puppetry shows and worked behind the scenes for university theater productions.  In addition, to help prepare for a career in sports broadcasting, Butler has participated in numerous media obligations where he speaks with national television announcers.

Character

Butler was selected as a team captain for his junior and senior seasons.  This year, he was chosen by the Big East Conference to participate in a public service announcement regarding sportsmanship with a fellow Big East student-athlete.  Also, he performed a similar service when he represented West Virginia University as a tobacco-free Mountaineer for the state-wide Razewv.com campaign.  Butler has always been a very vocal leader both on and off the court and during a head coaching change at WVU, helped the team maintain a positive attitude during unsettling times.  He was counted on as a leader last year with an extremely young team.  Butler is the men’s basketball representative for the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and served on the NCAA Steering Committee when WVU was going through the NCAA recertification process.

Community

Butler has been an active leader for community efforts throughout his four years at West Virginia.  Annually, he visits local hospitals during the Christmas season and participates in Read Aloud days at area schools.  Butler has been a part of the Coaches vs. Cancer initiative at WVU and is always willing to give an autograph or make an appearance for a worthy cause.  This has been evident through efforts such as when Butler attended the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, spoke at the WVU scholarship dinner in Charleston, West Virginia, called university supporters at the annual Thank-A-Thon (calling and thanking supporters for their financial contributions to West Virginia University) and was a guest speaker for Camp Choosy at the West Virginia Motor Development Center.

Competition

Butler is a member of the mid-season John R. Wooden Award list. He enters his senior season ranked 17th in school history in terms of scoring with 1,441 career points, and has registered 75 career double-figure scoring games with 14 of those games being 20-plus point affairs.  Butler averages 13.3 points per game for his career.  In addition, he ranks 10th in school history in career three-point field goals with 135 made.  Butler played for USA Basketball at the 2009 World University Games in Serbia, where he averaged 8.6 points per game and led the USA team to a bronze medal finish.  He was named second team All-Big East as a junior and was chosen by his teammates as team MVP that same year.  Also, he led the Mountaineers in scoring as a junior at 17.1 points per game and was second in rebounding with 5.9 per game.  Butler scored 43 points in a contest with Villanova, marking the most points by a Big East player in a league game since 2003.  He has started every game in the past two seasons.  Butler played for Athletes in Action during the summer of 2008 in Taiwan and earned All-Big East Rookie honors as a freshman.  Additionally, he has been named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll seven times and was named Big East Rookie of the Week two times as a freshman.  He has led West Virginia to an NIT Championship and two NCAA Tournament appearances during his career, including a spot in the Sweet 16.