Terry Butterfield has turned the UTD men's basketball program into a perennial contender in the American Southwest Conference and is coming off his most successful year as a coach. The 2006-07 Comets opened the season with 11 straight wins (including an upset of NCAA Division I UT-Arlington) and posted the best overall record in school history (18-8).

Butterfield w as the American Southwest Conference East Division Coach of the Year in 2003-04 after leading the Comets to an East Division Co-Championship and their first-ever trip to the ASC Championship Tournament. He followed that up in 2004-05 by not only leading the Comets back to the tournament, but to its first ever ASC Championship after the eighth-seeded UTD team swept through the tournament with three straight upsets.

Now a familiar participant at the tournament, the Comets have qualified for the post-season for four straight seasons, dropping close games in the opening round of each of the last two tournaments. In the last four seasons, his teams are 59-48 overall, and 44-35 against conference competition.

Butterfield has more than 26 years of college coaching experience after beginning his career as an assistant for his alma mater, Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1982-83. He then served as an assistant at Stetson University (1984-1986), Wittenburg University (1986-1987) and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (1987-1989).

Butterfield began his head coaching career at Virginia Wesleyan in Norfolk, VA, in 1989. In 11 seasons there, Butterfield's teams were a combined 159-127 and had seven winning seasons. His 1992-93 team won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship with an 19-9 mark and received a bid to the NCAA Division III national playoffs. He was the ODAC Coach of the year in 1991-92, when his team improved from 12-14 to 18-9.

A 1979 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and Secondary Education. He earned his Master of Education degree from Stetson University in Deland, Florida.

EMAIL TERRY BUTTERFIELD