USF men’s basketball head coach discusses historic regular season
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The University of South Florida’s men’s basketball head coach has done nothing but back up his early moniker — “This ain’t the same ole South Florida” — after a historic regular season.
It was nearly 365 days ago that Amir Abdur-Rahim was named the new head coach of the University of South Florida’s men’s basketball team. A program that had never made it won a conference championship, never went on a 15-game win streak and never sold out consecutive home games. However, just one short year later, all of those things have happened under Coach Amir’s leadership.
“It was a group of young men who made a conscious decision to put their individual goals to the side for the greater good of the team,” Abdur-Rahim said. “This group of guys, they are phenomenal. They love each other, they care about each other, they tell each other the truth and they give great edge.”
The Bulls rounded out the regular season with a 23-6 overall record and 16-2 in the American Athletic Conference. The team is ranked 24th in the nation and took home the conference championship title. The last three home games at the Yeungling Center were sold out.
“When I got here last March, the one thing I talked about was how we wanted the Yuengling Center to be the best home court environment in the country, we had to build that, but how do you build that?” he asked. “We had to go out in the community. We had to go out on campus and interact with the students. For some reason, some coaches want athletics to be separate from campus, no, no, we want to be a part of campus.”
With such a diverse coaching staff, Abdur-Rahim recognizes the importance of representation.
“Representation means the world to me, and let me take it a step further, I coach but I look at myself as developer of men,” he said. I think one of the best things we were able to do is hire Joi Williams. I wanted our young men to see a woman in a male environment and know that she could hold her own. Representation matters.”
The Bulls ended their season with a loss to Tulsa, which also ended their win streak. However, Abdur-Rahim said they are back to the drawing board and making adjustments before heading into the AAC tournament.
“We have to go take care of business,” he said. “We go into it as the number one seed. We will play the winner of East Carolina and Tulsa, two teams we have beat already. We lost our last game to Tulsa, but it’s not what happens it’s how we respond. We get an opportunity to respond, well now we get an opportunity to show everybody what USF is about.”
USF will play their first AAC tournament game on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas at 1 p.m. It will air on ESPN 2. The outcome of the tournament will determine if USF makes it to March Madness.
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