TAMPA, Fla. — As Ben Fletcher has grieved the death of South Florida men’s basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, he has looked through the texts he exchanged with his one-time competitor, two-time boss and long-time friend.
“He would always say, ‘Man, you’re ready,’” Fletcher said. “‘God is preparing you for this. Soon, you’re gonna get your opportunity and show everybody what you’re capable of.’”
Fletcher choked up Tuesday remembering those messages. The biggest opportunity of Fletcher’s career has arrived with his role as the Bulls’ interim coach. But that’s only because Abdur-Rahim — the man who helped prepare him for this stage and one of the biggest rising stars in the profession — is gone.
“It’s a difficult time … but I know Coach Amir would want me to do this,” Fletcher said.
Details about Abdur-Rahim’s death last week at age 43 remain undisclosed, other than a school statement that he died from complications during a medical procedure at an area hospital.
Athletic director Michael Kelly got the call at 1:58 p.m. Thursday. Forty-seven minutes later, he was at the Bulls’ basketball facility trying to process the news with the team. It was hard to comprehend. Only two weeks earlier, Abdur-Rahim had called him on a drive to Disney World because he was ready to see “this little girl of mine smile at this birthday celebration.”
Since his coach’s passing, Kelly said he’s heard condolences from every conference commissioner, every American Athletic Conference athletic director and the president of ESPN. All because of the impact of a coach who was only at South Florida for 576 days.
“He connected everyone he ever touched,” Kelly said.
That was obvious by all the flowers and USF gear fans laid last week at the makeshift memorial, the bull statue in front of the basketball arena. They’re gone now, and the box of tissues under a black tablecloth during Tuesday’s news conference was never needed.
The program Abdur-Rahim invigorated is beginning to slowly move on under Fletcher while remembering the late coach’s legacy.
After canceling Saturday’s scrimmage against Miami, the Bulls will take the Yuengling Center court Wednesday night as scheduled for an exhibition against Edward Waters before Monday’s opener against No. 21 Florida. It was the players’ decision.
“We were not going to take the floor until I absolutely knew that they wanted to and they were ready for that,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher will try to be ready, too, through the grief that still comes in waves. He knew Abdur-Rahim for more than two decades, since they met on the court in 2002 when Fletcher was a three-point specialist at Troy and Abdur-Rahim was an all-conference guard at Southeastern Louisiana. Abdur-Rahim hired Fletcher as one of his assistants when he took over Kennesaw State in 2019. Fletcher followed him to South Florida, where they won the Bulls’ first-ever regular-season conference title and a school-record 25 games together.
The turnaround earned Abdur-Rahim unanimous AAC Coach of the Year honors — an individual accolade that didn’t feel right. After Kelly handed him the trophy earlier this year, Abdur-Rahim vowed to correct the engraving; instead of coach of the year, it should say staff of the year.
As Kelly and Fletcher were walking down the basketball facility’s stairs Tuesday morning to address the program’s future without its beloved coach, Kelly paused to look at the trophy. Sure enough.
Staff of the year.
“He delivered on the promises that he said he was going to keep,” Kelly said. “We’re honored he chose to share a part of his journey with us.”
(Photo: Matt Baker / The Athletic)
