INDIANAPOLIS — A position on new Butler basketball coach Ronald Nored’s coaching staff will be filled by a familiar face.
Tony Bollier will return as general manager and director of player development as the Bulldogs for Nored, according to a source close to the program.
Bollier was hired by athletic director Grant Leiendecker in June 2024. The role of general manager is still relatively new in college basketball. Duke’s men’s program was the first to add one in 2022. With the transfer portal allowing players to move freely from school to school, player evaluation, retention and development have become key factors.
Bollier and Nored don’t have a previous working relationship, but the two are acquainted through Bollier’s stops in the NBA G League and with the Milwaukee Bucks and their G League team the Wisconsin Herd.
The transfer portal opens five days after Nored’s announcement, so Monday, and runs through the overlapping 15-day window that begins April 7 for most of college basketball players. Redshirt sophomore Jamie Kaiser Jr. planned to enter the transfer portal and the Field of 68 previously reported Jack McCaffery’s intentions to do so in a since-deleted post.
With Michael Ajayi, Yohan Traore and Yame Butler exhausting their eligibility, that leaves Jalen Jackson, Jackson Keith, Evan Haywood, Ethan McComb, Efeosa Oliogu-Elabor, Finley Bizjack, Drayton Jones, Azavier “Stink” Robinson, Bryson Cardinal and Kevin Ndzie as rostered Butler players.
Butler has five open roster spots, counting Noblesville guard Baron Walker is the team’s lone incoming freshman.
Landing Ajayi in the transfer portal was a huge recruiting win for Butler. He quickly became the crown jewel of Butler’s 2025 transfer portal class, and multiple Big East coaches expressed disappointment in missing out on Ajayi in the portal. The Gonzaga transfer established himself as one of the best players in the Big East averaging 16.4 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, earning First Team All-Big East honors. Ajayi’s 356 rebounds set the Butler single-season rebounding record, passing Daryl Mason who had 354 rebounds during the 1972-73 season.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ronald Nored makes first staffing decision as Butler basketball coach
Reporting by Akeem Glaspie, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
