An emotional USF basketball team honors its late coach in exhibition game victory

Exhibition basketball games between Division I teams and overmatched Division II teams generally don’t attract much attention. The game is an opportunity for the larger schools to fine-tune the things they worked on in practice before the real games begin.

However, that was not the case Tuesday night at the Yuengling Center when USF met Edward Waters University. After nearly a week of grief over the death of Bulls coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, it was a chance for the players and coaches to experience a piece of normal.

Under interim coach Ben Fletcher, the Bulls won the game 94-51. The bigger victory, however, was just being on the court as they attempted to move forward. With a tribute patch on their uniforms about Abdur-Rahim, this was a first step toward doing that.

“To God be the glory,” Fletcher said. “Happy to be back out on the floor. After so much happened in the last few days, I was just happy and proud that these guys could take the floor and play to honor coach Amir like we would always want.”

USF is coming off a school-record 25-win season, highlighted by the Bulls’ first regular-season American Athletic Conference championship.

After serving as Abdur-Rahim’s associate head coach last season, Fletcher was named the interim head coach on Tuesday. He said then that the Bulls would play with the same up-tempo style as they did last season, and that’s what happened in this game.

Four players hit double figures in scoring, and the Bulls connected on ten 3-pointers. Defensively, they shut down Edward Waters with 27.1 percent shooting.

After attending a memorial service Sunday at Kennesaw State, Fletcher gave the players the option of canceling the game, but they wanted to play

Guard Brandon Stroud said the last few days were definitely emotional as they processed what had happened.

“But sometimes you have to put in the back of your head and play the next game and do it for coach,” he said. “Coach (Fletcher) is the head coach now, we’ve got to do it for coach.”

Guard Jayden Reid added, “It was definitely emotional like Brandon said, but it’s all God’s plan like coach Amir would tell us. We’re happy to be back out on the court. Every time we step out on the court, we’ll be doing it for him. It’s a sad moment, but he left a legacy and we’re carrying it on.”