Assistant Matthew Graves promoted to interim head coach

Apr. 6—The next man charged with leading the Indiana State men's basketball squad is Matthew Graves — with the interim tag.

He was associate coach for the past three years as the right-hand man to Josh Schertz, who was officially unveiled by Saint Louis University on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. in a release. Graves was named interim head coach. ISU said it will conduct a national search for the permanent head coach, and Graves is interested in that role.

"Graves will get to continue the work he did with Schertz," ISU athletics stated Saturday. "Now he will be the No. 1 guy looking to build on bringing the ISU program out of relative obscurity with recent revival seasons."

The Sycamores started from ground zero three years ago when former coach Greg Lansing's contract wasn't renewed in 2021.

After a 11-20 mark in Schertz's first season, the team jumped to 23-13 last year and 32-7 this year.

Schertz finished his bid in the Wabash Valley with a regular season Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year award after a regular season championship and Mid-Major Coach of the Year honor from CollegeInsider.com.

ISU has gone through a revival with a 66-40 mark the past three years with Graves having an integral role.

"Graves would be great as a head coach, he's more than ready and has been a huge part of our success here the last three years," Schertz wrote via text late Friday.

Graves, a Butler alumnus and former White River Valley High school standout who coached at South Alabama from 2013-18, has served as an assistant at Xavier, Evansville. As an associate coach with Butler in 2010 and 2011 the Bulldogs appeared in back-to-back national championship bouts.

Eight days ago, the Tribune-Star asked Schertz about the prospects of Graves returning to a head coaching spot.

"Graves is awesome, he's the first guy I hired here three years ago," Schertz said. "[I] had...coming into the job...great respect for him. We hadn't worked together but he had been at Butler for 13 years and Graves' family is royalty in Indiana, not just him but his brothers. He had local ties, been a head coach Division I and he's certainly expedited my learning curve. He's a really good basketball coach. He does a great job of scouting. He does a really good job on the floor with the guys. He's just a good all-around basketball coach. He's a guy that does everything well. He's a great evaluator. He's terrific on the court."

Graves was very transparent about his future coaching aspirations.

"I'm 49 years old, I still feel like I have a lot of years left in coaching," Graves said. "There's no question that with the right opportunity I'd absolutely love to be a head coach.

"Staying local is extremely important," Graves added. "My parents come to every home game. They still live in the same house I grew up in, in Switz City. My oldest daughter is going to Bloomington (Indiana University) and my youngest will be a senior next year at Franklin Central High School."

"It would be a dream come true to stay local," he added.

Schertz gave a ringing endorsement a week ago about Graves heading up a program on the sideline.

"No question in my mind, he'll be a head coach hopefully in the not too distant future and when he gets that next shot he'll be terrific — whatever school is lucky enough to hire him," Schertz said.

Graves will be waiting in the wings for that next shot to seize control of a second program of his career.

"There are a lot of things that come in this profession that are out of your control," Graves said. "At the end of the day when the opportunity comes, you just need to be ready. I think these last three years coach Schertz has continued to help me to become ready when that next opportunity to be a head coach arrives."

On Friday, Graves doubled down on his commitment to ISU before he was named interim coach.

"Definitely want to stay here and become [the] next head coach — no-brainer for me," he texted.