Bryan Hodgson responds to reports of schools targeting him after USF success

If you spend any time online, you know that USF men's basketball coach Bryan Hodgson is one of the most sought-after coaches in the country.

He grew up in Olean, N.Y., about 75 miles from Buffalo. He was an assistant at the University of Buffalo. He has family living in the area.

It hasn't been hard to connect the dots, especially with the Bulls headed to Buffalo for Thursday's first-round NCAA tournament game against Louisville. Internet sluths have all but installed Hodgson on the Syracuse or Providence College benches, as both programs are looking for head coaches. They've been wrong before. Remember last spring when Hodgson was all but installed at UNLV before his move to USF was announced?

So, at his Monday media briefing with local media after the Bulls won the American Conference tournament, Hodgson was asked about whether the chatter is a distraction as USF prepares for March Madness.

He was eager to answer the question.

"Did it look like it distracted me yesterday? No. Did it look like a distraction on Saturday? 
No. We played great basketball Saturday and Sunday, so, there is no distraction," he said.

"It's great to be wanted. 
Those opportunities come with success. I am the head basketball coach at the University of South Florida and I have a job to do. That job is not done yet, and we're looking forward to an opportunity on Thursday. 'm glad you asked that question, because the distractions piece, if you watched our game Saturday and Sunday, we weren't distracted."

As much as USF fans would have loved for him to profess his undying love for his current job and for CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins to announce a 10-year contract extension, that was not going to happen.

That doesn't mean Hodgson, who signed a six-year contract with a $2 million buyout last spring, is gone 20 minutes after USF's season ends. But home is a powerful draw, especially when his father -- who started as a foster parent when Bryan was abused as an infant and later adopted him -- is suffering from dementia.

Individuals have to know when the time and opportunity is right. Hodgson decided last March that the time was right to move from Arkansas State to USF, and the result has been incredible. He has a strong sense of family and place, and maybe that's enough to make him decide Tampa is the place for him to be,

Besides, as he said, in this moment he is the head coach at the University of South Florida and there is a job to do.