Bold moves by Rob Higgins are changing how USF athletics operates

Many college athletic directors would have looked at the 20-win season achieved this season by the USF women's basketball team and rewarded interim head coach Michele Woods-Baxter with a multi-year contract.

But last week, Rob Higgins -- USF's CEO of Athletics -- saw it differently.

On Monday, Higgins will formally introduce new coach Kristy Curry at a news conference/pep rally. He plucked the accomplished head coach away from the University of Alabama, and after watching Higgins in action for a few months it's not hard to imagine why he went in that direction.

USF's campus-wide slogan is "Be Bold." With Higgins, that's not just a slogan -- it's how he rolls on a daily basis.

He'll explain his rationale for this move at the press conference, but it's not hard to guess why he looked at Curry and concluded she would be the best hire for the program going forward.

Woods-Baxter served 17 years with the program, all but one as Jose Fernandez's assistant. She was a loyal soldier for the Bulls. In hindsight winning 20 games after Fernandez departed for the WNBA shortly before the season began was a considerable achievement.

They finished 20-12, and included in the debit column were losses to national powers UCLA, UConn, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. They did beat Duke. But while those losses were to premiere teams, they were blowouts. If the Bulls are going to keep playing those programs, they have to find a way to be more competive.

Perhaps that factored into Higgins' decision. The Bulls are positioning themselves to join a power conference and no program can be collateral damage. The time to start an upward trajectory is now, not when they get an invitation to a new home.

The dye seemed cast when Higgins announced a national search shortly after USF was ousted in the American Conference tournament. He said Woods-Baxter would be considered -- and I'm sure she was -- but this was less about personalities and more about how USF should approach women's basketball.

The Bulls are one of the top teams in the American, but the program also seems to have plateaued. Under Fernandez, USF made the NCAA tournament 10 times, but never advanced beyonde the second round.

You can bet the subject of recruiting came up in discussions with Curry. Under Fernandez, USF had a big reliance on international players.

My guess is that will change. Curry's roster this season at Alabama had only two players born outside of the United States. The Bulls had 10 international players.

Michele Woods-Baxter did an outstanding job this season under tough circumstances and she will be back on a sideline sooner rather than later. The bottom line, however, is that Higgins believes at this moment that Curry is a better fit for the vision he has for the program.

And look at it this way: USF just hired a head coach AWAY from Alabama. Usually in these situations, it's the other way around.