Kennesaw State Men’s Basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim has accepted the head coach position with the University of South Florida following a historic year in Kennesaw.
An official announcement was made on March 29, coming after recent rumors that Abdur-Rahim had been interviewing for coaching positions elsewhere, most notably at the University of California – Berkeley, where he did not receive an offer.
In an interview with The Athletic last month, KSU Athletic Director Milton Overton had seemed optimistic about Kennesaw re-signing Abdur-Rahim, citing the fact that he’s from the Atlanta area and may want to stay around family.
Abdur-Rahim became KSU’s Men’s Basketball coach in 2019 after spending a year as an assistant coach for the University of Georgia. His work with the basketball program has been remarkable, going from a 1-28 record his first season to leading the team to its first ASUN title and appearance in the NCAA’s March Madness tournament in 2023.
Despite being bounced by Xavier in the first round of March Madness, the Owls still had a record-breaking season under Abdur-Rahim’s leadership. The team went 26-9, giving the Owls their best year since becoming a Division I team. While they found significant success this season, Abdur-Rahim is only 45- 74 through all four seasons he has spent in Kennesaw.
The move leaves KSU basketball with some uncertainty moving into the next few seasons. Following the announcement of Abdur-Rahim leaving KSU, Brandon Stroud, Chris Youngblood and Kasen Jennings announced they would be following him to USF. All three players were integral to the team’s success this past season.
Another challenge facing basketball will be the move to Conference USA, which will happen with the rest of KSU Athletics in the fall of 2024. The move from ASUN to a larger conference will be difficult for the Owls as they’ll face tougher conference opponents, such as Florida Atlantic who recently made it to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament.
Abdur-Rahim will be expected to uplift the South Florida Bulls much in the same way he did with the Owls. He’ll be replacing Brian Gregory, who was recently fired by the Bulls after being the head coach there for six years. They haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2012 and finished this year with a 14-18 record.
KSU will officially be entering the Antoine Pettway head coach era in the 2023-24 season. Pettway was previously an assistant coach at Alabama and Jacksonville State. Alabama was the No. 1 team in the nation leading into March Madness.
