Jason Hart sees shades of himself in Lamont Butler: 'He's probably ahead of where I was.'

New Kentucky assistant coach Jason Hart was a pretty good ball player back in his day.

A four-year college career (1996-2000) at Syracuse saw him finish with the most steals in program history (329) by a significant margin (the next closest is 258) and second in career assists (709). Prior to his nine-year NBA career and ongoing coaching career, Hart was one of college basketball’s top guards with the Orange. He was the first freshman ever to lead the Big East in minutes and capped off his college tenure by making All-Big East First Team as a senior.

Overall, Hart started 131 of the 132 games he played at Syracuse under Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim. His 4,491 career minutes played ranks third all-time with the school. Hart’s four-year stat line includes 11.4 points, 5.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.5 steals in 34 minutes per game. He snuck in an All-Big East Third Team spot as a junior, as well.

All this is to say that Hart, who now coaches the point guards at Kentucky, knows what he’s talking about when it comes to high-level floor generals. He believes the Wildcats have one similar to himself in San Diego State transfer Lamont Butler. In fact, Hart says Butler is an even better defender at this stage than he was roughly 25 years ago.

“Lamont Butler is a unique on-ball defender,” Hart recently said on KSR’s Sources Say podcast. “He has the ability to get into the passing lane and obviously take the ball from you while you’re dribbling. Defensively, he’s probably ahead of where I was but I’ve seen myself in him in terms of the defensive side of the ball. He gets after it.”

Hart was clearly an impressive defender at Syracuse, but not even he has the defensive accolades under his belt that Butler does from his time with the Aztecs. Butler was a three-time Mountain West All-Defensive Team member from 2022-24. The media voted him Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 before the coaches did the same in 2024.

Butler is expected to soak up a significant portion of Kentucky’s minutes at point guard. While the talk of Mark Pope‘s first team in Lexington has understandably revolved around a fast pace of play and an emphasis on three-point shooting, Butler’s defense will be massive for helping the Wildcats stay afloat on that end of the floor. He’s got a good mentor helping make that possible, too.