By the time the 2026-27 season gets underway for the men’s basketball team at South Florida, they will be under the tenure of their fifth head coach in five years.
Less than a week after the head coaching position went vacant, USF CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins made quick work in the coaching carousel and landed Chris Mack to take over the position. Mack will be the latest in a long list of recent head coaches for the Bulls.
Following an underwhelming 14-18 season in 2022-23, the program let go of long-time coach Brian Gregory. They hired Amir Abdur-Rahim from Kennesaw State for the 2023-24 season. Abdur-Rahim immediately became a fan favorite and revived a program that had been greatly struggling for several years. Just weeks before the 2024-25 season was set to get underway, his untimely passing led to Ben Fletcher being named the interim coach for the season. A disappointing campaign under Fletcher meant that USF was going to have to look elsewhere for 2025-26. That led the Bulls to set their sights on Arkansas State head coach Bryan Hodgson.
The foundation left by Abdur-Rahim was built upon by Hodgson, who led USF to one of their most successful seasons in program history. They won the American Conference in the regular season, the conference tournament, and made just their fourth March Madness tournament appearance in program history.
Such a historic season leads USF to today. Hodgson decided to take his talents to the Big East as he accepted the head coaching position at Providence. Several days later, the Bulls announced Chris Mack would take over his role.
Mack brings an impressive resume with him to South Florida. He lead a perennially competitive program at Xavier for nearly a decade. He accumulated three regular season conference championships, a Henry Iba Award, an Elite 8 appearance, and the first and only No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in school history. Now, after two separate head coaching stints at Louisville and Charleston, he finds himself bringing his long list of accolades and qualifications to Tampa.
For the USF faithful, this hiring begs one overarching question: is it a long-term solution for the Bulls? Successful coaches leaving for greener pastures has become a running theme across more than one sport over the past year. Bryan Hodgson just left for Providence. Football head coach Alex Golesh will be on Auburn’s sidelines in the fall. Is Mack’s upcoming tenure the next in line to use USF as a figurative stepping stone to a larger program?
Luckily for the Bulls, the immediate answer will be no. A coach can only be as good as the players he brings to the court. There will be significant turnover from a player standpoint next season. American Conference Player of the Year Izaiyah Nelson has declared for the NBA Draft. Elite three-point shooter Joseph Pinion will graduate and Wes Enis has already hit the transfer portal. Regardless, Chris Mack is going to have work to do to construct a roster, which he has proven himself capable of doing.
Couple that process with the constant buzz around South Florida eventually earning a bid to a power conference, and the potential becomes apparent for Mack to form another perennially competitive program. Being in the recruiting hotbed of West-Central Florida, the Bulls showcasing immense recent success, and now boasting a proven winner at the head coaching position, the writing is on the wall for USF to make a much larger name for themselves in college basketball than ever before.
The expectations in the Bay Area should be sky high. Taking over a program that just won their conference and made a March Madness appearance will not be an easy endeavor. But Mack has done it before. When he took over the reins at Xavier, the Musketeers were in a position where their expectations were through the roof. The prior coach, Sean Miller, had brought Xavier to be considered one of the nation’s top-tier basketball programs. When Mack assumed the role, he delivered the same success and reached new heights that Xavier had not seen before. It can certainly be assumed that the vision for USF is for him to do the same with the Bulls: build upon prior success, reach new heights, and generate a name for the program that is linked to other championship caliber mid-major teams.
Of course, the looming cloud of doubt around long-term stability will be present if Mack is successful. And the possibility of him packing up and heading out of Tampa within a year or two for a return to the Big East or another power conference is very real. But there is certainly a chance he returns to his former elite coaching status at USF and transforms the program into the next Xavier.
So, while it is very early in the process, this hiring signals high expectations. The desire for more banners to be hung from the rafters in the Yuengling Center is apparent. USF is making it a priority to be competitive in the American Conference and chasing NCAA tournament appearances yearly. Bringing on Chris Mack is the first step of many to see the best that USF basketball has to offer.