Jamar Butler (born September 27, 1986) is a basketball point guard.[1] His career started at Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio,[1] where he was named Ohio's Mr. Basketball his senior year. Butler was then recruited by both the University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University. Jamar chose Ohio State, where he broke multiple school records while majoring in African American and African Studies.[2] Butler is currently playing in Europe for KK Partizan in the NLB League. His most recent team was Olympia Larissa in the A1 Ethniki.
Butler attended Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio, and scored a total of 2,412 points throughout his high school career.[1] He placed tenth on Ohio’s all-time scoring list.[1] In his senior year, Butler averaged 31.6 points a game, 8.3 assists, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.6 steals a game, and he was named Ohio's Mr. Basketball of 2004. Butler was honored for his Mr. Basketball honor on January 14, 2011 at a varsity game vs. Elida High School. Shawnee's other Mr. Basketball, Jeff Miller, also attended Ohio State.[1][3]
In Butler's first year at Ohio State (2005), he was named top freshman foul shooter in the Big Ten Conference, having made fourteen out of his last fifteen foul shots.[1] In addition, he often played double-digit minutes, having played for twenty-five minutes in his career start against Northwestern.[1] He started in the last twelve games, and played for 610 minutes total.[1] Overall, Butler made thirty-three percent of field shots and twenty-three percent of three-point shots.[1]
As a sophomore, Butler averaged 10.1 points per game and was named Big Ten Player of the Week in February 2006 after leading Ohio State to wins against two ranked opponents.[1] He also led the team in foul shots, with an accuracy rate of about eighty percent.[1] In the 2006 Big Ten Tournament championship game in March, Butler led the Ohio State Buckeyes in scoring with nineteen points (and six assists).[1]
In his third year at Ohio State, Butler scored eighteen points in the first game of the season and did so again against Penn State.[1] He played for thirty minutes or more in twenty-eight of Ohio State’s thirty-nine games.[1]
As a senior, Butler helped lead Ohio State to victory in the 2008 National Invitation Tournament. That year, Butler also recorded his first double-double, set an Ohio State single-season record with 104 three-pointers made, and was named MVP of the 2008 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.[2]
Butler holds the career records in assists (579) and games played (139).[2] He is also twenty-third all-time in scoring, with 1,313 points.[2]