Andrew Smith, a 25-year-old who played on two Final Four teams for the Butler University basketball team, died Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer. He appeared to have beaten the cancer in 2014, but it returned a year ago and developed into leukemia.
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Stevens left the Celtics prior to their 101-92 loss at Chicago on January 7 to return to IN to spend time with Smith who was battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 2014.
Smith and Stevens were part of several high-achieving Bulldog teams.
We are profoundly sad to share the news that Andrew Smith ’13 passed away today. “But the last two years, he’s been through a lot”.
Smith personified the school motto of living life the Butler way, working to get better each day and remaining selfless.
‘But that’s what we always saw from Andrew.
The news of Andrew Smith’s death hit many people hard, including his former college coach, Brad Stevens.
He started as a sophomore on the 2011 squad and averaged 8.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Smith helped take the Bulldogs to back to back national championship games, where the 6’11 rebounding star was instrumental to bringing Butler to its first ever Final Four appearance.
What made Andrew so special was the way that he genuinely cared for others.
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“We saw the way Andrew fought on the basketball court and we saw the way he fought for his health”, Butler President James Danko and Butler Vice President/Director of Athletics Barry Collier said in a statement. “I was happy that I got a chance to say goodbye,” Stevens said. In November, he underwent a bone marrow transplant, but the procedure failed. “I could go on and on but it wouldn”t do him justice. He is, was, and always will be a Bulldog. He spent most of his time in the hospital in recent weeks, but he was allowed to come home for Christmas and to attend Butler’s December 19 victory over Purdue in the Crossroads Classic. “It’s not as tough on me as it certainly is on them; but certainly emotionally, very, very challenging”.
