I didn't want to post anything like this until the basketball team was ready to try and move forward and a coach was named to replace our dearly departed Coach Amir Abdur Rahim. May his legacy live on through these players, coaches, the USF, friends and family. Having said that, we need to embrace Ben Fletcher as the interim head coach for this season.
My initial thoughts about the interim coach tag. I DON'T LIKE IT, BUT I UNDERSTAND WHY ADMK is using it for CBF...at this time. My reason why I'm so against the interim label in this situation is, it handicaps this current coach and the staff from a recruiting standpoint and keeping current players fully invested into the program when/if times start to go bad with individual and team performances. Recruiting is the life blood of collegiate sports and that starts with building relationships and trust from prospects on a daily basis. Even during the NIL period that is just as important, if not more important from a school like USF who can't just rely on purchasing players through the portal. CAAR talked about this at the beginning of this past spring.
From ADMK standpoint, I understand that he and the University has to take a wait and see how well COACH Fletcher will perform in a role he has never been placed in before. His best experience at it was when CAAR had him coach the team in the recent exhibition games in Spain. Perhaps CAAR was further developing Coach Fletcher because no one was more aware of his health condition than CAAR himself. ADMK has had a very tough job over this past week, and I'm not going to criticize his decisions. He had his top level Head Basketball Coach in place for a while, the man who was the best ambassador for what USF stood for you could hope to find. Now he has to suddenly circle the wagons and deal with a great personal and professional loss of a beloved and successful coach, while also making sure USF athletics doesn't lose ground on where they are headed. ADMK is truly facing a Catch-22 situation.
The first thing needing to be said to fans and anyone associated with USF, WE SHOULD NOT expect Coach Fletcher to be Coach Amir. That is an impossible task for anybody to pull off and it will be unfair to Coach Fletcher if fans or boosters are looking for that large void to be filled by him. It's not likely we will ever see another Amir Abdur Rahim type grace our lives again. With that out of the way let's learn about the things Coach Fletcher has been and will be.
Ben Fletcher is from the historic city Selma, AL. He played 2 seasons at Troy University from 2001-2003 where he averaged 13ppg and made 160 three pointers during that time. He was a big part of the reason that Troy made their 1st ever NCAAT appearance in the 2002-03 season. Another nugget from that season was that Troy defeated UCF 80-69 and Ben Fletcher scored his career high 29 points against the Knights
. After his playing career, Ben Fletcher was hired as an assistant coach under Don Maestri for Troy University, who he credits with most of his teaching from a coaching standpoint. For those that don't know, Maestri is famous for his run & gun style of basketball, and his Troy teams lead the NCAA in three-pointers per game from 2003 to 2006. Back in 1992 his team once scored 258 points in one game!! In total Ben Fletcher got spent 17 seasons at Troy, first as a player and 15 years as an assistant coach, He started with Coach Maestri and continued with Coach Phil Cunningham from 2013-2019, where he helped lead the team to 2017 NCAAT berth. After the 2018-19 season, Ben Fletcher finally left the state of Alabama for the state of Georgia and became an assistant under CAAR in his 1st season at Kennesaw State. We know the move after that.
I think we will be very pleased having Coach Fletcher being just that...a coach. We loved the style of play under CAAR because it was not the snooze fest we were getting from the former head coaches of the past. We loved the way our team played with tempo on offense and defense, the freedom to allow guys to play their game, the floor spacing, and the good looks for our shooters. All of that will continue under Ben Fletcher, and it's possible that he will want an EVEN HIGHER TEMPO than CAAR, remember the coach Maestri influence engraved in him. Another strength of USF under CAAR was our physical fitness. USF won a lot of games late because the opposing teams wore down towards the end while USF still had more left in the tank. We will not lose that EDGE!
Ben Fletcher was one of CAAR top recruiters, so I don't see a problem with him being able to relate to prospects. He's smart, articulate, and knows how to speak the language of today's youth. Again I'm not saying his approach is that of CAAR, but his approach does work. His issue is the Interim Coaching tag and he has to quickly prove himself and USF to fans and prospects by having a good start to the season. As a person who follows recruiting, I was just amazed that up until his final moments, CAAR was still recruiting his butt off. He was really going to build USF into a consistent winner, not a winner every 3-5 seasons, but every season. The class of 2025 center Cade Bennerman and his family was in the home with CAAR and his family just a few days before Coach passed away. This is a kid that has been on campus at Duke and being looked at by other HM universities. I believed USF under CAAR was going to get this young man committed and signed. That's one example of the level of recruiter that he was and where he had built USF in just a short time.
The fan support that was there for CAAR, has to be there for Coach Fletcher as well. Have to let these prospects see the incredible atmosphere created at USF under CAAR, continue under Coach Fletcher. In closing, I think we will be pleased with this coaching staff's performances to continue many of the things CAAR built. There is an opening on the staff, but Coach Fletcher said that they were not going tom bring in any outside help. Chemistry is important.
My initial thoughts about the interim coach tag. I DON'T LIKE IT, BUT I UNDERSTAND WHY ADMK is using it for CBF...at this time. My reason why I'm so against the interim label in this situation is, it handicaps this current coach and the staff from a recruiting standpoint and keeping current players fully invested into the program when/if times start to go bad with individual and team performances. Recruiting is the life blood of collegiate sports and that starts with building relationships and trust from prospects on a daily basis. Even during the NIL period that is just as important, if not more important from a school like USF who can't just rely on purchasing players through the portal. CAAR talked about this at the beginning of this past spring.
From ADMK standpoint, I understand that he and the University has to take a wait and see how well COACH Fletcher will perform in a role he has never been placed in before. His best experience at it was when CAAR had him coach the team in the recent exhibition games in Spain. Perhaps CAAR was further developing Coach Fletcher because no one was more aware of his health condition than CAAR himself. ADMK has had a very tough job over this past week, and I'm not going to criticize his decisions. He had his top level Head Basketball Coach in place for a while, the man who was the best ambassador for what USF stood for you could hope to find. Now he has to suddenly circle the wagons and deal with a great personal and professional loss of a beloved and successful coach, while also making sure USF athletics doesn't lose ground on where they are headed. ADMK is truly facing a Catch-22 situation.
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BEN FLETCHER
The first thing needing to be said to fans and anyone associated with USF, WE SHOULD NOT expect Coach Fletcher to be Coach Amir. That is an impossible task for anybody to pull off and it will be unfair to Coach Fletcher if fans or boosters are looking for that large void to be filled by him. It's not likely we will ever see another Amir Abdur Rahim type grace our lives again. With that out of the way let's learn about the things Coach Fletcher has been and will be.
Ben Fletcher is from the historic city Selma, AL. He played 2 seasons at Troy University from 2001-2003 where he averaged 13ppg and made 160 three pointers during that time. He was a big part of the reason that Troy made their 1st ever NCAAT appearance in the 2002-03 season. Another nugget from that season was that Troy defeated UCF 80-69 and Ben Fletcher scored his career high 29 points against the Knights
. After his playing career, Ben Fletcher was hired as an assistant coach under Don Maestri for Troy University, who he credits with most of his teaching from a coaching standpoint. For those that don't know, Maestri is famous for his run & gun style of basketball, and his Troy teams lead the NCAA in three-pointers per game from 2003 to 2006. Back in 1992 his team once scored 258 points in one game!! In total Ben Fletcher got spent 17 seasons at Troy, first as a player and 15 years as an assistant coach, He started with Coach Maestri and continued with Coach Phil Cunningham from 2013-2019, where he helped lead the team to 2017 NCAAT berth. After the 2018-19 season, Ben Fletcher finally left the state of Alabama for the state of Georgia and became an assistant under CAAR in his 1st season at Kennesaw State. We know the move after that. I think we will be very pleased having Coach Fletcher being just that...a coach. We loved the style of play under CAAR because it was not the snooze fest we were getting from the former head coaches of the past. We loved the way our team played with tempo on offense and defense, the freedom to allow guys to play their game, the floor spacing, and the good looks for our shooters. All of that will continue under Ben Fletcher, and it's possible that he will want an EVEN HIGHER TEMPO than CAAR, remember the coach Maestri influence engraved in him. Another strength of USF under CAAR was our physical fitness. USF won a lot of games late because the opposing teams wore down towards the end while USF still had more left in the tank. We will not lose that EDGE!
Ben Fletcher was one of CAAR top recruiters, so I don't see a problem with him being able to relate to prospects. He's smart, articulate, and knows how to speak the language of today's youth. Again I'm not saying his approach is that of CAAR, but his approach does work. His issue is the Interim Coaching tag and he has to quickly prove himself and USF to fans and prospects by having a good start to the season. As a person who follows recruiting, I was just amazed that up until his final moments, CAAR was still recruiting his butt off. He was really going to build USF into a consistent winner, not a winner every 3-5 seasons, but every season. The class of 2025 center Cade Bennerman and his family was in the home with CAAR and his family just a few days before Coach passed away. This is a kid that has been on campus at Duke and being looked at by other HM universities. I believed USF under CAAR was going to get this young man committed and signed. That's one example of the level of recruiter that he was and where he had built USF in just a short time.
The fan support that was there for CAAR, has to be there for Coach Fletcher as well. Have to let these prospects see the incredible atmosphere created at USF under CAAR, continue under Coach Fletcher. In closing, I think we will be pleased with this coaching staff's performances to continue many of the things CAAR built. There is an opening on the staff, but Coach Fletcher said that they were not going tom bring in any outside help. Chemistry is important.
