The USF Bulls’ most difficult season ended Thursday afternoon as they lost to Wichita State in the first round of the AAC Tournament, 73-68. Wichita State jumped to an early 10-2 lead and led the rest of the way as the Bulls could never quite close the gap.
Give coach Ben Fletcher and this team a ton of credit. I can’t remember a team losing their coach right before the start of the season in the manner that the Bulls did this season.
Amir Abdur Rahim, last year’s coach of the year in the AAC, passed away unexpectedly on October 24. It was just one day before the Bulls were scheduled to play Miami in a closed scrimmage and just days before the season opener in Jacksonville against Florida.
Last season, the Bulls were the regular-season AAC champions with a record of 25-8 overall and even beat their nemesis, UCF, in an NIT matchup, 83-77.
The Bulls also lost three of their leading scorers from last year’s team, including starters Chris Youngblood (Alabama) and Kasean Pryor (Louisville) to the transfer portal. USF found it difficult to replace their production this season. The Bulls finished 13-20 overall and 6-13 in the conference.
When you talk about the great basketball coaches like John Wooden, Bobby Knight, and Dean Smith, just to name a few, there is not one coach that could have come into the situation that Fletcher was thrust into and done any better.
USF athletic directory Michael Kelly has not confirmed whether Fletcher will return as a basketball coach next season, but it sure seems like USF will be moving on.
“We are eternally grateful to interim head coach Ben Fletcher for his leadership under extraordinary circumstances this season,” Kelly said. “I also want to thank our staff and student-athletes for their resilience. Coach Amir would be so proud.”
Kelly also said that USF will search nationwide for the next coach to lead the USF basketball program.
“A national search is underway for our next head basketball coach. The process will be thorough, and once our next head coach is chosen, we will share that news with you.”
Fletcher was an assistant under Abdur-Rahim for the last four years (two at USF). They were undoubtedly close friends, so you can imagine all of the emotions that Fletcher and the team felt having to play a basketball game just days after attending the memorial service for Abdur-Rahim.
Although it was a disappointing season for Fletcher and the USF Bulls after last year’s championship run, many teams would have thrown in the towel and canceled the season.
Not these Bulls. Instead, they chose to play hard, with emotion and tenacity. A style that would make Abdur-Rahim proud.
We all get measured on the results we generate. If you’re looking at the 13-19 record as a measure of success, you are missing the true definition of success and its importance. Unfortunately, that was what Fletcher was graded on.
I remember Abdur-Rahim saying that although wins and losses are important, what is most important is that the young men under his watch are becoming good citizens and good men.
Many people will look at the 13-19 record of the team this season and deem it a failure. But you could make a case that this season was more of a success than last season, considering what the basketball program had to overcome.
Ben Fletcher was an interim coach for this season only. He did his absolute best under the circumstances.
After the loss to Wichita State in the AAC Tournament, Fletcher talked about how proud he was of this team. “I’m super proud of these guys just for so many different reasons. Tonight, you know, with their backs against the wall, they came out and fought again.”
“There’s not another team in the country that had to go through what these guys had to go through. It’s extremely tough, but I’m just so proud of those dudes because every day they just showed up, showed up, showed up.”
Two names on USF’s radar could be Tom Crean, the former coach at Marquette, Indiana, and Georgia. Crean took Marquette to a Final Four in 2003. Former USF player Chris Capko, the associate head coach at SMU, is another name to watch in the coaching search.