Report: South Florida to hire Amir Adbur-Rahim as new head coach
South Florida is expected to hire Kennesaw State’s Amir Abdur-Rahim as the team’s next head basketball coach, according to Jeff Borzello.
“South Florida is expected to hire Kennesaw State’s Amir Abdur-Rahim as its next head coach, sources told ESPN,” Borzello wrote on Twitter. “Led one of the biggest rebuilds in college basketball, going from winning one game in 2019-20 to winning the ASUN regular-season and tournament titles this season.”
Abdur-Rahim coached at Kennesaw State from 2019-23 and went 45-75 overall as head coach. As Borzello mentioned, he underwent a huge rebuild.
Abdur-Rahim led the school to a 26-9 record this season and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Kennesaw State also won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season crown and tournament title.
Prior to Kennesaw State, Abdur-Rahim was an assistant at Texas A&M (2014-18) and Georgia (2018-19).
The 42-year-old played his college basketball at Garden City CC from 2000-01 before a transfer to Southeastern Louisiana from 2001-04. He began his coaching career in 2006 with Murray State as an assistant and eventually landed at the College of Charleston in 2012.
Following his stint there, Abdur-Rahim ended up at Texas A&M, Georgia and eventually Kennesaw State.
Reports indicated South Florida wanted to hire Mike Brey
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, former Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey interviewed for the USF job was an offer was never extended. Some time off will be taken from the coaching world as Brey now looks to find a role in television moving forward.
“Notre Dame coach Mike Brey tells ESPN he interviewed for USF, but was not offered the job, Thamel said. “He said he’s going to take some time off and pursue television.”
When the news of Brey leaving South Bend was first revealed, the thought was he was going to be retiring. However, the quickly stated he would just be leaving the Notre Dame program and was interested in getting back into coaching.
USF was the only team known to reach out for an interview at the time.