The state of basketball at South Florida has been quite tumultuous in recent years with significant ups and downs for the faithful in Tampa. This next season will mark the fifth straight with a different head coach for the Bulls after the firing of Brian Gregory, the tragic death of Amir Abdur-Rahim, and the recent departure of Bryan Hodgson, who left just weeks ago for the job at Providence. Experienced head coach Chris Mack comes to town and hopefully brings stability for this program.
Despite what’s been this rocky road, the Bulls have actually shined brighter in the last few years than any time in recent memory. His tenure lasted just a single season, but Abdur-Rahim had this program trending in an awesome direction during a 25-win season. After a rough season in his absence, Hodgson came in and turned things around instantly, getting the Bulls to the Big Dance for the first time in 14 years.
The onus now falls on Mack to keep that forward momentum for a program that has undergone and insane amount of changes over the last half decade. Since joining the American back in 2013, those two seasons we mentioned are the only times when South Florida finished above .500 in league play. This isn’t some hotbed of basketball, it truly was unlocked by the quick efforts of both Abdur-Rahim and Hodgson, but Mack himself knows a bit about winning.
Mack won a ton of games at Xavier before plateauing at Louisville, and was doing some pretty nice things at Charleston in recent years. He comes to Tampa with a pretty high pedigree, as it’s not every day a former ACC and Big East head coach drops into the lap of a program like this. However, he’s also navigating the challenges of this new reality in the sport all the same.
Unsurprisingly, most of South Florida’s team entered the transfer portal after the season and coaching change, with as many as ten names on that list and others out of eligibility. Mack and his new staff came to town with quite the task to rebuild, as seemingly has been done time and time again across the country, but their initial work has been quite impressive.
With Izaiyah Nelson and other former stars gone, the Bulls have already added nine new faces from the portal. We won’t deep dive on all of them, but this isn’t just piecing together a lineup of castaways. Former Toledo point guard Sonny Wilson is an awesome scorer and could become a focal point of this team. They also added some high major talent in Zayden High from North Carolina and Mike James out of Vanderbilt, two players likely relishing opportunities to really showcase their talents.
We’ll need some time to really figure out what the future holds for South Florida but the hope is that Mack brings some stability. With virtually nothing remaining for last season, it’s hard to really project how the Bulls will finish in the American but the early returns say this is a team that can certainly contend for another league title. Do you think South Florida has the pieces to remain relevant?
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