LaVall Jordan’s phone flooded with text messages and emails Saturday when the Butler-Florida game went into overtime.

Jordan, an assistant basketball coach for Michigan, had seen this before. Here was Butler, the small school from the Horizon League, pushing higher-seeded Florida in the NCAA tournament.

In 2000, Jordan played for Butler, which lost to the Gators, 69-68, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In 2007, when Jordan was an assistant coach with Butler, Florida beat the Bulldogs in the Sweet 16.

As his cell phone went off Saturday in Butler’s eventual 74-71 overtime victory that put the Bulldogs in the Final Four, memories of the past games returned for Jordan.

“You become an alum at that point and a fan, and you root for your own school,” Jordan said. “I’m always pulling for them, especially against Florida, that carried something extra.”

Jordan is part of the reason Butler is going to the Final Four in back-to-back seasons. As a player, he helped build the current tradition in the program playing for then-coach, now-athletic director Barry Collier.

As an assistant coach at the school, Jordan helped recruit the current Butler seniors, including Matt Howard.

What Jordan learned at Butler carries over to his role at Michigan. It is evident in the way the Wolverines use more ball screens and pick-and-roll plays than current Michigan coach John Beilein has before. It is evident off the court with Jordan and Jeff Meyer, who was an assistant at Butler under Todd Lickliter from 2001-04, influencing strategy and recruiting decisions.

It also manifests itself in what Jordan tells his players about leaving a program better than you entered it and to try and create a legacy. It was one of Jordan’s goals when he played at Butler from 1997-2001.

“The three years I spent there I saw a lot of very, very positive and effective ways to teach and coach and, hopefully, some of those things have been able to translate to the experiences here at Michigan,” Meyer said. “Certainly with Val in the time he’s been here.”

Jordan and Meyer were at Butler when current Bulldogs coach Brad Stevens was an assistant. On Sunday, Jordan and Meyer remembered their former colleague as “bright.” Watching Stevens coach now, they said, solidified everything they saw then, when he would sit in on meetings and be the calm yet energetic assistant on the bench.

Even when Stevens was a new assistant, he was impressive. Meyer once said to his wife, Karen, that Stevens had a rare gift among coaches - something Meyer himself admitted he doesn’t have. It translates to his teams now, displayed in the way Butler calmly came back from being down against Florida on Saturday.

“I’ve never seen Brad get upset,” Meyer said. “He’s been upset, but he contains it and is very composed and even has a way of deflecting anger and frustration and turning it into a very positive thing.

“I do believe that is a unique gift he possesses.”

This gift helped lift Butler from where it was with Jordan and Meyer - a consistent NCAA tournament participant and an occasional Sweet 16 candidate - to where it is now.

Going back to the Final Four for the second straight year.

Jordan said he envisioned this when he played at Butler. Meyer, who has been a head coach at Liberty and an assistant at Purdue, South Florida, Missouri, Indiana and now Michigan, wasn’t as optimistic.

“Quite candidly, probably not like this,” Meyer said. “This is something I don’t think we’ve seen before, to have a quote-unquote mid-major program go back-to-back years to the Final Four.

“I can’t say that I saw this coming.”

When Butler hung on to beat Florida, Jordan’s phone started going off again. In the mass of messaging, he shot congratulatory text messages to Stevens and his assistant coaches, including the Bulldogs director of basketball operations, Darnell Archey, who was his teammate at Butler.

He also received a lot of text messages, including one he didn’t necessarily expect. It came from current Butler guard Ronald Nored.

“We did that one for you old guys,” Jordan said the text message said.

Ten years ago, that is what Jordan was shooting for. He helped create a legacy, one he and Meyer will watch in Houston on Saturday as the Bulldogs play in the Final Four.

Again.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein