Congratulations are in order for former Boston Celtics assistant coach Alex Barlow, who is reportedly getting a coaching job at Mississippi State after spending the last three seasons at Butler.

As noted by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, Barlow will work under Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans. Barlow worked under Brad Stevens when he was the head coach in Boston, a position he held from 2013-21. He was still in the organization after Stevens transitioned to his current role as president of basketball operations.

In addition to coaching at Butler, Barlow is a former player at Butler who earned Academic All-America status while with the Bulldogs. He played one season for Stevens, helping Butler get to the NCAA Tournament in 2013, and then again after Stevens left. He was a two-time Big East Scholar Athlete of the Year winner.

The Celtics hired him in 2015 and he spent two years as a video assistant before coaching in the G-League for 2017-18. He then spent 2018-19 on the Celtics staff before heading back to the G-League as the associate head coach of the Maine Celtics from 2019-2022. He was the head coach in Maine for 2022-23 before taking the job at Butler. He won 30 total games between the regular season and showcase season. 

Before getting to the Celtics in 2013, Stevens spent six seasons at Butler, going a whopping 166-49 and making the NCAA Tournament five times. He won the Horizon League four times and made trips to back-to-back Final Fours. His 2009-10 team advanced to the national title game, falling just short against Duke. While at Butler, he coached former Celtics high-priced star Gordon Hayward, who was part of that 2009-10 team.

Stevens was undoubtedly a hot commodity after his success at the mid-major, but it was still surprising to see someone in their mid-30s get a job as prestigious as the Celtics. All told, Stevens spent eight years as the head coach of the Celtics, also maintaining solid success.

He went 354-282 (.557), finishing over .500 in six of the eight seasons. He was 36-36 in 2020-21 when the season was only 72 games because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He made the playoffs in seven of the eight years in Boston, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals three times. He also helped the Celtics play through the Isaiah Thomas era, the Kyrie Irving era, the Hayward era, the early Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum era, and the Kemba Walker era.

Following the 2020-21 season, Stevens transitioned to his executive role in the front office. The team hired Ime Udoka, who took them to the NBA Finals, and then elevated Joe Mazzulla after Udoka was let go for non-basketball reasons. The C's won the title in Mazzulla's second year at the helm, beating Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

Boston went 56-26 this season, earning the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. They were eliminated by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and Stevens will have questions to answer this offseason, namely if he will keep the Tatum and Brown tandem together once again.

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