South Florida fires Orlando Antigua after two-plus frustrating seasons
Not even three years after plucking Orlando Antigua from John Calipari’s staff, South Florida already has buyer’s remorse.
Athletic director Mark Harlan announced Tuesday that Antigua has been fired. Assistant coach Murry Bartow will take over for the rest of the season as the interim head coach.
“After a thorough and deliberate review of our men’s basketball program, a decision has been made to make a head coaching change,” Harlan said in a statement.
“We will continue to provide all the resources and support necessary for our student-athletes and coaching staff to have success. A national search to find our next head coach will commence immediately.”
Steve Masiello was initially Harlan’s top choice to replace Stan Heath in March 2014, but the Manhattan coach’s lack of college degree forced South Florida to go in a different direction. Harlan then pivoted toward Antigua, whom he hoped could elevate the Bulls program by recruiting and developing top talent the way he did at Kentucky.
Progress came frustratingly slowly for Antigua the past three years.
Battered by injuries, suspensions and player defections, South Florida went 9-23 in Antigua’s debut season and 8-25 last year. Worse yet, Antigua’s brother was forced to resign from the staff this past summer after the NCAA began investigating South Florida for possible academic fraud.
Any chance Antigua had to make progress in his third season vanished when prized recruit Troy Baxter backed out of his letter of intent in August and leading scorer Jahmal McMurray transferred in November after just three games. South Florida currently stands 6-7 overall and 0-2 in the American Athletic Conference with losses to Northern Illinois, Florida Atlantic and Elon.
The timing of Antigua’s firing is the only curious part of the decision. While South Florida’s offense is among the nation’s least efficient and most turnover-prone, the Bulls appear to have little to gain making a change now rather than waiting until March.
Antigua’s firing continues the trend of Calipari assistants not exactly flourishing as head coaches. Tony Barbee was fired after four seasons at Auburn in 2014 and Derek Kellogg has taken UMass to one NCAA tournament in nine seasons.
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
