Is Amir Abdur-Rahim Mid-Major Coach of the Year?
Amir Abdur-Rahim has the South Florida Bulls ranked for the first time in school history after taking Kennesaw State to the tournament for the first time in school history.
South Florida has quickly rose to national acclaim this season after their impressive 21-5 record with wins against ranked Memphis & FAU, and a 13-game winning streak which has them in position to win the regular season title in the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls have had just one winning season in the last decade and have won just 31 games in the last 3 years combined, so how have they done it? Let me introduce you to Amir Abdur-Rahim.
Abdur-Rahim was a long time assistant coach at Murray State from 2006-2011 to start out his coaching career. He then jumped around at the College of Charleston, Texas A&M, and Georgia from 2012-2019 in assistant coach roles until he landed his first head coaching position at Kennesaw State in 2019.
Kennesaw State was one of the worst schools in all of Division 1 prior Abdur-Rahim’s arrival. Since joining the Division 1 ranks and the Atlantic Sun in 2005, the Owls had never seen a winning season. Overall, they’ve finished with 10 or less wins in a season in 8 out of their 19 seasons in Division 1. They’ve finished with 20 or more wins just once.
When the Owls announced Abdur-Rahim as the head coach in 2019, it was a rough start. They finished 1-28 on the season with their only win coming against Gardner-Webb in a 85-61 victory in Kennesaw. However, things started to change. In 2020-2021, they finished 5-19 in the COVID shortened season. Then in 2021-2022, the Owls finished 13-18 & 7-9 in the A-Sun. Continuing the upward trend, in 2022-2023 the Owls finished 26-9 on the season, 15-3 in the A-Sun and headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
How’d he do it? Recruiting and building culture.
In this day and age, it’s rare that players spend their entire careers in one spot, and in many cases even two spots. Abdur-Rahim built a culture from the start at Kennesaw State. Let’s look at their top performers this year:
Terrell Burden - 16.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 6.2 assists per game
5th year at Kennesaw State (5th Year Senior)
Simeon Cottle - 15.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists per game
2nd year at Kennesaw State (Sophomore)
Dedmond Robinson - 12.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game
3rd year at Kennesaw State (5th Year Senior transfer from Murray State)
Quincy Ademokova - 10.4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist per game
2nd year at Kennesaw State (Senior transfer from Temple)
Even with the coaching change, players like Burden & Robinson have been here since the beginning of the rebuild by Abdur-Rahim. Last year, they also had Chris Youngblood who is now a Senior that followed Abdur-Rahim to South Florida. Youngblood spent three seasons with Kennesaw State and averaged 14.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.8 assists last season.
The culture that was built there helped retain these elite players and build something special in the Atlantic Sun. Taking a step back, think about how often we see entire teams transfer after a coaching change. Since Kennesaw State hired Antoine Pettway who was an assistant coach these players wanted to stay with him. That speaks for the respect these players have for their university.
Now let’s jump to South Florida. In his first season as head coach of South Florida, Abdur-Rahim has the Bulls at 21-5, first place in the American Athletic Conference, ranked for the first time in school history at #25, wins against multiple AP Top 25 teams, and a 5-3 record in Quad 1 & 2 games.
The South Florida Bulls are easily the surprise of the season as they were projected to finish in 9th place in the AAC pre-season polling. They have two AP Top 25 wins against #10 Memphis & #24 FAU. Their five losses came to Maine, Hofstra, UMass, UAB, & Central Michigan. Unfortunately, as a result of this, it may be difficult for the Bulls to make the tournament with an at-large bid due to their weaker non-conference schedule. However, if they make a run in the AAC tournament and loss in the conference championship game, perhaps that would be enough to get them in.
Regardless of what happens, this season has been phenomenal. As previously mentioned, Abdur-Rahim was able to get Chris Youngblood to follow him to South Florida from Kennesaw State. To add to this, Senior Selton Miguel stayed at South Florida following the coaching change and leads the team with 15 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists per game. Joining these two as the stars of the team, Kasean Pryor was a transfer from Northwest Florida State College that has immediately jumped into the Bulls lineup averaging 12 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. Can the Bulls make their 4th NCAA Tournament in 51 seasons?
Abdur-Rahim is an elite program builder. From culture building, to recruiting, to leadership, he is the full package that many power schools are going to drool over. With his performance this year in South Florida, there is no doubt that he is one of the top Mid-Major coaches in college basketball.