Apr 2, 2010 8:03:58 AM

The road that the Butler Bulldogs and coach Brad Stevens followed to this weekend's Men's Final Four appearance actually began just a few miles outside Indianapolis, on the campus of nearby DePauw University.

The 34-year-old Stevens played his final collegiate game just 11 years ago at DePauw, which coincidentally was Butler's first opponent in a November 1 exhibition game as the Bulldogs quietly began the journey last fall that this week became the talk of the sports world.

Now, five months after Butler's 77-45 win in that opening test over the Tigers, Stevens is joining such notable DePauw alumni as pharmaceutical magnate Eli Lilly, former Vice President Dan Quayle, ex-U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs chair Lee Hamilton, former National Urban League leader Vernon Jordan Jr. and former National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland in drawing attention to the 2,400-student school in Greencastle, Indiana.

Athletically, DePauw competes in Division III's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, in which Stevens earned selection to the academic honor roll during his senior season with the Tigers.

While Stevens was an underclassman, the team played in what is now known as the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

DePauw coach Bill Fenlon told ESPN.com writer Mark Schlabach that he asked Stevens to play off the bench during his senior year, and remembers him as "very unselfish" and as "a great teammate and leader."

Fenlon also had some words of advice a year later, as Stevens considered whether to give up a management-track position at Eli Lilly and Company to pursue coaching.

"You're probably not going to do it 10 years from now," ESPN's Schlabach quotes Fenlon as telling Stevens. "If you do it and it doesn't work out, Eli Lilly isn't going anywhere. You're only 24 years old. You're still young. But when you're 34 years old and have a wife and children, a mortgage and car payments, you might be thinking, ‘Wow, I wish I had tried that.' You don't want to look back and think, ‘Boy, I wish I had tried it."

Stevens, who played in all 101 of DePauw's games and earned four varsity letters as a basketball student-athlete, also was active on campus and successful in the classroom.

The dean's list honoree and economics major was a civic intern in DePauw's Hartman House leadership-development program, which involves university students in a variety of community-service activities. Stevens helped lead the school's Sports Night program for area grade-schoolers.

He also was a participant in the Management Fellows Program, an honors program under the auspices of DePauw's McDermond Center for Management and Entrepreneurship.