TAMPA, Fla. — Last week, the USF athletic department signed men's head basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim to a contract extension through the 2029-'30 season. The deal is reportedly for six years and $11.55 million- a four million dollar raise from his original contract. Abdur-Rahim made five different stops (Murray St., Georgia Tech, College of Charleston, Texas A&M, Georgia) in 13 seasons as an assistant coach before accepting the head coaching position at Kennesaw St. in 2019. He accepted the USF job before last season.
The 43-year-old says it's nice to give his family the chance to settle down.
"To be able to call a place home, for your daughters and your kids to know that their friends are pretty much going to be the same for “x” amount of years, it’s a big deal," Abdur-Rahim said Thursdays. "Because stability's important, but people believing in your vision is unbelievably important."
Abdur-Rahim led his squad to a school-record 25 wins en route to earning the first regular season AAC title in program history. But he hasn't had much downtime this offseason.
His top three players from last season - Chris Youngblood, Kasean Pryor, and Selton Miguel- all left via the transfer portal. But coach Amir is confident that USF's culutre will keep his program at an elite level.
"It’s not about what happens. It’s how you respond," he explained. "As long as we go out and do our jobs and recruit guys with ability and talent that will fit who we are as a program, culturally. I feel good about our chances to be right back where we want to be."
Along with re-tooling his roster, Abdur-Rahim is loading up his coaching staff, hiring St. Pete-native Marreese Speights as his director of player development. Speights won a national championship with the University of Florida 2007.
He also helped the Golden State Warriors win the NBA title in 2015. He joined the USF staff after serving as an assistant at Georgia Southern.
"When you can walk in with a national championship ring on this finger and an NBA championship on this finger, and those guys know you were a good player, especially and you’re from this area? For lack of a better term, it gives us street credibility," Abdur-Rahim said when explaining what Speights brings to the Bulls.
He continued, "It adds a ton of value and experience. I think Mo is just going to grow and grow and grow, and he’s going to be a heck of a head coach one day."
Abdur-Rahim famously said, "This ain't the same old South Florida" when he accepted the job. He raised expectations to a championship level in one season, and he doesn't expect anything less moving forward.
"When you’re walking into everybody’s other gym and the respect for the program has gone up... who are you going to be every day? Now, when that target’s on your back, can you change the focus? I know we will. I refuse to take a step backwards."
