This past March, the Belmont University men's basketball program hired Evan Bradds as its newest head coach. Bradds, who went to Belmont, served as an assistant coach this past season at Duke, where he helped the Blue Devils earn the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They advanced to the Elite Eight, where they were beaten by UConn.

Before working in the college game, Bradds spent five seasons with the Boston Celtics, working under head coaches Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla and Ime Udoka. He also spent three years with the Utah Jazz, working under former Celtics assistant Will Hardy.

Speaking with NCAA.com's Andy Katz this week, Bradds gave credit to Stevens for giving him a coaching opportunity, and he also praised his work ethic, saying he appreciated seeing how he handled all the little things, including planning and running practice.

Bradds called it a dream come true to work for Stevens. Bradds is the all-time leading scorer at Belmont and was a two-time Honorable All-American as a player.

He isn't the only former Celtics coach to get a college gig recently, as Alex Barlow also landed a job at Mississippi State in June.

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 head coach of 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.

Stevens will be under a heavy microscope this season after the Celtics elected to trade Brown to the rival Philadelphia 76ers.