Conference realignment in recent years has greatly changed some of the most recognizable leagues in collegiate athletics. The major movement in 2013 caused the creation of the AAC, a league built for football but who has given us some notable basketball as well. Programs like Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, and Memphis have gained the most attention, though only the Tigers remain after more recent realignments and they aren’t exactly our focus today.
The league looks much different than when it was founded just twelve years ago, but there are still notable basketball stories taking place on a regular basis. When the league began, Larry Brown was building something at SMU, while veteran coaches like Fran Dunphy, Ron Hunter, and Gregg Marshall have entertained us from the sidelines. However, there’s another far more tragic story that’s unfolded in this league.
In 2023, South Florida wasn’t in a great place with their basketball program, as they had failed to build a contending program in their first decade in the league. The Bulls turned their program over to Amir Abdur-Rahim, who had just led Kennesaw State to the NCAA Tournament in a stunning rebuild. The same happened in Tampa, as Abdur-Rahim won 25 games and took the regular season crown in the AAC in his first season.
Tragically, Abdur-Rahim passed away just weeks before this past season began. His longtime assistant Ben Fletcher served as interim coach but things weren’t the same, as the Bulls struggled to a 13-win season and a 9th place finish in the league. However, the program has momentum again with the hiring of Bryan Hodgson, one of only two coaching changes even made in the AAC this offseason.
Hodgson had respectable gigs at smaller schools until catching on as an assistant under Nate Oats, helping him build success at both Buffalo and Alabama. Hodgson’s own head coaching career started in 2023 at Arkansas State, where he’d take the Red Wolves twice to the postseason, including 45 total wins and a regular season conference title this past year.
South Florida turns their program over to someone who’s engineered success at multiple places over the last decade, whether as assistant or head coach. Hodgson is a rising name in coaching circles, much like Abdur-Rahim was when they hired him two years ago. There are no guarantees that he can achieve the same sort of instant success with the Bulls, but South Florida got a great new leader who has already landed a boatload of transfers and could make waves in the AAC very soon.