For Niya Butts, it’s pretty simple.
Basketball isn’t just about basketball.
From her time as a player at the University of Tennessee, to her time as a coach, Butts has never treated the game she loves as just a game.
It’s more than that. It’s more than a game.
“Being a coach to me is honestly about all the other stuff just as much as it’s about basketball,” Butts said. “When you’re a coach or a teacher, you have access to a lot of lives and you should have a connection with the kids you encounter and coach. I feel it’s important that we do something with that as coaches, and not just serve as someone talking about basketball when you see there’s a need for other areas.”
With that in mind, Butts created a motto before the 2014-2015 season that has turned into more of a way of life for the Arizona women’s basketball team. Looking for a way to neatly wrap up everything she was trying to teach to her team, Butts enlisted the help of a longtime friend. Between them, they came up with the motto: “More Than A Game.”
For Butts, it comes with three primary principles: Inspire, develop, transform.
“A lot of people say it’s more than a game, heck even LeBron James uses it, but what do you mean by that?” Butts asked. “It boiled down to this is what we want to do. We want to inspire, develop and transform. It captured what we want to be about as a program and what I want to do as a coach.
“It’s more than a game. Our goal is to inspire you, develop you in every area and to transform.”
The message and goal to inspire, develop and transform student-athletes is one Butts preaches to her coaching staff, the current players and perspective recruits.
Buy in is not optional; it’s mandatory.
“More Than A Game to me means it’s not just about basketball,” senior Keyahndra Cannon said. “With Coach Butts, her love for you extends farther out than basketball. She cares for you so much more than just on the basketball court. She wants you to succeed in all aspects of life. She wants you to be successful here and when you leave from here. She wants to make sure you have all the right things you need to be successful in life.”
When student-athletes first arrive at Arizona, Butts goes right to work on the inspire stage of More Than A Game. It’s hard work at first, but oh so rewarding.
“I think we all want to do well,” Butts said. “We want to do better. But when we figure out what that’s really going to entail, sometimes that takes us a step back. So, be an inspiration to people by what you do, your actions and not just your words. We want to inspire them.”
Once Butts gets her players to buy in on the inspire stage, she begins to develop. Student-athletes quickly learn from their coach that basketball isn’t just about succeeding on the court and pouring in points, rebounds and assists.
Instead, it’s about having an impact off the court as well and being even better away from the game.
“She cares about you more than anything,” redshirt freshman guard Taryn Griffey said. “When she recruited me, I always felt she cared about me as a person more than she cared about me as a basketball player. She cared about me as a young woman and wanted to develop me into the woman I want to be and the basketball player I want to be.”
Once the student-athletes adopt the attitude Griffey has, the full-on transformation begins. Excelling away from the game becomes a priority, not just a goal.
And embracing the principles that come with More Than A Game happen whether the on-court stuff is going well or not.
“A lot of times when you don’t play well, you get down on yourself,” Cannon said. “She’s always there. She always tells you that there’s going to be another day to get better and to focus on being better the next day.”
Inspire. Develop. Transform. It is certainly More Than A Game in Tucson.
