South Florida predicted to be winners in first season under new head coach

The South Florida men’s basketball program has not finished a season with more wins than losses since the 2018-19 season – the second of six seasons under former head coach Brian Gregory. The Bulls only return three players from last season’s 14-18 squad and have a new head coach but are poised to improve immediately, in the opinion of Brian Hamilton of The Athletic.

Hamilton, a senior writer for The Athletic, and Dana O’Neil were asked to pick coaches who took over a program that were not winners last year but they think could be winners next year. The duo were tasked with selecting one Power Six (I really hate that term for basketball) program, one mid-major and a wild card.

“I’m a believer in Amir Abdur-Rahim, and he’s going to have a very old squad in his first year at South Florida,” Hamilton opined. He brought his best player (Chris Youngblood) from Kennesaw State along with two other solid rotation pieces, and third-leading scorer Selton Miguel is a veteran holdover from the previous regime. Again, up-transfers are never a sure thing — be it a player or a coach. But the Bulls haven’t finished above .500 in the past four seasons. In that same span, Abdur-Rahim went from one win to 26 at Kennesaw State. Have to imagine he’ll make South Florida much more competitive from the jump."

The Bulls open the regular season against South Carolina State Nov. 9 in Tampa at Yuengling Center.