Jaylen Butz was in the car with his mother the first time he heard from Rick Stansbury.

The 6-foot-9, 230-pound former forward at DePaul hadn’t played since the 2019-20 season but entered the transfer portal in January to look for a new home.

Western Kentucky’s head coach was searching for a forward with big men Charles Bassey and Carson Williams gone from the previous team, so he Facetimed Butz.

“He was real to me. He let me know what he was looking for as a player,” Butz said. “It was with my mom, we were just driving and he happened to call me and we talked for about an hour, honestly. I didn’t expect it to be all that, but it was a great conversation.”

Butz is one of two forwards who transferred to WKU from another Division I program in the offseason – Jairus Hamilton being the other – who are expected to make a big impact for the Hilltoppers this season.

Both have started and already made a splash this preseason during the team’s exhibition wins over Campbellsville and University of the Cumberlands leading into Tuesday’s 7 p.m. regular-season opener against Alabama State at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Both have taken different paths to get to this point and are confident they’ve found a good fit.

Butz started 47 games and appeared in 89 over three seasons at DePaul, and his junior season averaged 10.1 points and 5.4 rebounds. He shot 58.9% from the field there, which is the third-best mark in program history. After not appearing in any games before January and some “shakiness” in his relationship with the staff, he opted to try the transfer portal.

“I tried as hard as I could those three years I was there just to do what I could, but overall I just feel like I needed a better place for me mentally and just a better place for me physically as well,” Butz said. “It was a great university, they treated me well – it was just time to move on.”

Butz describes himself as a player who’s “very versatile” and “can guard multiple positions” while being someone who can “help offensively and defensively and bring a little finesse with power.”

In his first time playing a game at Diddle Arena, Butz had eight points and 10 rebounds with two assists and four turnovers in 22 minutes against Campbellsville. He came out stronger in Friday’s exhibition against Cumberlands, scoring 10 first-half points and grabbing six rebounds through the first 20 minutes. He finished with 12 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes.

“Butz, this is the No. 1 thing I worry about, that I’m on him about – and he’s come a long way – I’m on him about one thing – effort. That’s it,” Stansbury said after the second exhibition. “I thought first night for sure he had game slippage, and what I mean by that is the way he used to practice compared to the way he was practicing. We had taken some casualness out of him some. I thought he got into the game Monday night, missed a bunch of shots early, and I thought he went back into that mode he used to be in – just didn’t play as hard.

“That’s all I ask. I ain’t worried about missing shots, I’m not worried about a turnover. Effort and attitude – those two things overcome a lot of things. He came back and responded very well. He was very good. I thought he was better tonight. He was better tonight. Got to keep getting better.”

Hamilton started hot his first night and didn’t cool down.

The 6-foot-8, 230-pound senior transfer from Maryland had game highs of 19 points and 14 rebounds against the Tigers before a 22-point, 11-rebound – also game highs – effort against the Patriots.

“It was definitely a good night,” Hamilton said after the first exhibition. “I was definitely out there shooting the ball very confident and my teammates was just giving me open shots. It just made it so much easier on my part. It’s definitely something I want to continue as the season goes forward.”

The most impressive stat line from the forward came from behind the arc. Hamilton was 5-for-6 from 3-point range against Campbellsville and 4-for-6 against Cumberlands to shoot a combined 75% from long range in preseason games.

“Jairus is a guy – he ain’t going to shoot it now 9-for-12 in two games,” Stansbury said. “ … He’s not going to do that consistently, but he can go down to 50% and be pretty good. Nine 3s in two games is a pretty good percentage.”

The shooting is part of the reason WKU wanted Hamilton. He appeared in all 31 games last year at Maryland, averaging 6.5 points and 2.4 rebounds while firing 43% from 3-point range.

Before that, Hamilton spent two seasons at Boston College, where he averaged 9.5 points and 4.3 rebounds while making 20 starts his final year there.

Like Butz, he was searching for a better home, and thinks he found it this time.

“I learned a lot,” Hamilton said. “Just definitely learned a lot about mental strength, just learning how to deal with different things going on with life, but basically I’ve been searching for a place that really fit me and understood me and just gave me the opportunity to just strive and I really felt like I really landed on it this time, for real.”

Hamilton said Bowling Green reminds him of his hometown of Charlotte when he was growing up before it grew to what it is today, and Butz said it’s more similar to his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., than Chicago, where he played previously – he points to having restaurants like Fazoli’s, Cheddar’s and Rally’s easily available.

The two are part of a new-look Hilltopper team that replaces nine players from last season. WKU also added Cincinnati transfer guard Keith Williams, but are awaiting more information on his eligibility, as well as transfers from the junior college ranks in Darrius Miles, Jamarion Sharp and Sherman Brashear.

“I think the biggest thing with transfers, and I’m speaking on our transfers, we have good people. When you have good people it’s easier to get them to understand and coach them, coach them the way you’ve got to coach them,” Stansbury said at the team’s media day.

“Sometimes there’s good and bad. Sometimes you’ve got old guys maybe have picked up bad habits for a longer period of time. Sometimes young guys, it’s easier to mold them a little bit. Older guys at the same time bring some experience and some confidence.”

It might take time for all the new pieces to reach their potential together, but Butz and Hamilton are confident in what the Hilltoppers can do this season – especially after showing flashes of what the duo can bring to the table last week.

“Oh, we’re special. We’ve got a special group of guys,” Hamilton said. “We all love each other, we all want to work hard for each other and we all want each other to get better, which every great team needs to have. We’ve already got those three bases right there.

“We’ve got a lot of great talent, a lot of new pieces that can come in and can play that’s already been gelling ever since we’ve met each other, so it’s going to be a very special year.”{&end}