With USF’s 73-68 loss to Wichita State Thursday in the American Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament, it’s time to ask the only question that matters.
What comes next for this program?
The Bulls finished 13-19 this season and lost eight of their last nine games. Normally, that would put a coach on the hotseat, but this season has been anything but normal at USF.
Michael Kelly, USF’s vice president for athletics, has to decide quickly – if he hasn’t already – whether to remove the “interim head coach” tag from Ben Fletcher or go outside for a complete reboot.
Let’s be clear: Fletcher is not to blame for the way this season went for the Bulls. He was the right choice to take over after the death of Amir Abdur-Rahim. It was an impossible situation but Fletcher held it together as well as anyone could have.
Despite the frustrations of this season, I saw a team that could have quit but never did. Thursday’s game was just the latest example of why that is so.
The Bulls trailed by 15 points with 11:59 to play and could have had one eye on the flight back home. Instead, they clawed their way to within three points with 3:12 left before the Shockers hung on.
“I'm super proud of these guys just for so many different reasons,” Fletcher said on the post-game radio show. “Tonight, you know, with their backs against the wall, they came out and fought again.
“There's not another team in the country that had to go through what these guys had to go through. It's extremely tough, but I'm just so proud of those dudes because every day they just showed up, showed up, showed up.”
They effort they gave in this game was nothing unusual because they played extremely hard every night.
Giving Fletcher a full off-season to shape this program and make it his could lead to a turnaround next year. The man does know basketball.
There are other things to consider, however.
If Kelly decides on a reboot, there would be no shortage of candidates wanting the job. USF used to have the reputation of a place where no one could win, but Abdur-Raheem awakened the sleeping giant and showed the vast potential of this program.
Tom Crean is a name you hear often associated with USF. He took Marquette to the 2002 Final Four and later had stops at Indiana and Georgia.
He has been an unflinching champion of USF – Abdur-Rahim was on his staff at Georgia – and would be a way to move forward without a complete makeover.
But perhaps Kelly decides that it’s not right to move on from Fletcher, based on what he saw from this team. That would be a completely defensible decision, considering that multiple injuries definitely affected what this team could do.
Let’s also not forget that USF saw its top three scorers from last season’s 25-win team leave via the transfer portal. That was a lot of firepower to replace.
Whatever Kelly decides to do, I hope he does it quickly. I have to believe he has been doing due diligence for weeks about potential replacements, but a lot of good jobs are already open and more will follow soon.
This season has ended, and that’s almost a relief. No team in the country endured what USF did this year, but now it’s in the rearview mirror.
It’s time to move forward, and deciding who will coach this team is Michael Kelly’s top priority.