When Butler alum Maria Marchesano learned the head coaching position was open at her alma mater, she burst in to tears. A native of Fort Wayne, Ind., Marchesano was content in her role as head coach of Purdue Fort Wayne. At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel that the Bulldogs’ vacancy was a special opportunity.
“I found out via my agent, and my husband was downstairs watching TV and he comes up and literally finds me in tears on the couch,” Marchesano said in her introductory press conference. “[The tears] came out of nowhere. I mean why would that make me emotional? It’s just open, I don’t even know if they’re interested in me. But I knew in my heart … [Butler] was the one place that could pull me away from home.”
Marchesano’s decision to accept the Butler job, which was announced on April 8, meant leaving behind a successful tenure at Purdue Fort Wayne (2021-2026), where she led the hometown Mastodons to three consecutive 20-win seasons. Now, she returns to Indianapolis, her collegiate home, and the campus where she’s a four-year letterwinner in basketball (she also played one season of softball), graduating in 2005.
“We are excited to bring Maria home to Butler,” said vice president and director of athletics Grant Leiendecker in a statement. “She is a proven program-builder, a coach who has achieved success at every university she has been. Maria will bring her immense talent, energy and commitment to Butler, a place that is incredibly special to her as someone who wore our jersey. Maria has a great vision for what our program can achieve and a solid plan on how to get there. The future is incredibly bright for Butler Women’s Basketball.”
Marchesano’s coaching career includes 234 wins across stops at Purdue Fort Wayne (five seasons), Mount St. Mary’s (four seasons), Walsh (three seasons) and Urbana (two seasons). She was named the 2024-25 Horizon League Coach of the Year, and coached three All-Horizon League first-team selections during her tenure at Purdue Fort Wayne.
The 14-year head coach is now tasked with transforming Butler — a 54-73 program over the past four seasons under former head coach Austin Parkinson — into a BIG EAST contender. Just two players from last season’s Bulldogs roster were retained, so Marchesano wasted no time hitting the recruiting trail to build a new-look team.
So far, two players — 6’3 forward Lili Krasovec and 5’6 guard Destiny Macharia — have followed her from Purdue Fort Wayne, and three other transfers — Karina Bystry (Northern Kentucky), Taya Ellis (Bowling Green) and Tamar Singer (Miami (OH)) — will call Hinkle Fieldhouse home next season. Additionally, Butler will welcome traditional high school recruits as it continues its roster re-haul.
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“Something that we’ve been really locked in on as we try and build this roster … [is] team-first kids, high-character kids, you know, kids that are gritty on the floor and unselfish,” Marchesano told The IX Sports ” … The two best compliments I can receive from a fan or anybody that comes to one of our games is, ‘Your teams play really hard and they play unselfishly.'”
Marchesano told The IX Sports she believes her success with transfers and the “high price tag” she puts on player development in her programs can translate to success in the BIG EAST. At the same time, she says her status as an alumna adds an emotional level to recruiting that she can share with prospects.
“When you’re recruiting kids, and you’re going through your spiel, and you’re showing them around, and you’re talking about the experience, and then they learn that you played here too — and you’re coming from a place of you’ve experienced it. I just think it hits home even harder with those recruits, and that’s something I’m excited to be able to be able to do here,” Marchesano told The IX Sports.
Having turned around Purdue Fort Wayne, which was 1-22 the season before she took over, Marchesano knows what it means to rebuild a program. Her expectations and goals for what a successful first season looks like revolve around system-setting and building momentum.
“Year one is about generating excitement around the program, putting a good product out there,” Marchesano told The IX Sports. “I don’t think we have to set the world on fire in terms of wins in year one. Obviously, that’s still the goal. But I think in year one success looks like having excitement around the program, increasing ticket sales, getting buy-in, getting some retainment with our players, and just taking strides in the right direction — you know, showing improvement.”
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In the longer term, though, Marchesano expects to transform Butler into a conference contender with a with winning culture and reputation.
“Success is being in the top three of the BIG EAST every single year, and no matter who we lose or who we graduate, we just have this program here that is expected to be in the top tier of one of the top conferences,” Marchesano said. “That’s how it was at PFW. We got it to the point where even when we graduated seven seniors and had the best season in school history … we were still expected to be in that top tier the following year.
“And I think for me, as we move forward here, Butler in the BIG EAST, that’s what success looks like. It’s just the expectation of: this team is going to be there, competing for a championship year in and year out.”
