Ex-hogs coach gets Bulls back to tournament
Five years after being fired as Arkansas’ coach despite taking the Razorbacks to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, Stan Heath has led South Florida to one of the biggest Big East single-season turnarounds and the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 years and third overall.
The Bulls (20-13) received an at-large bid and a No. 12 seed and will play California (24-9), also a No. 12 seed, on Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio, in an opening-round Midwest Regional game. The winner will advance to play Temple on Friday in Nashville, Tenn.
“It means a lot,” Heath said. “It’s been 20 years. I can’t tell you how many alumni and former players have talked about it and wanted our program to get back there. ... We still feel like we can play better basketball, and we’re excited to have an opportunity to go forward.”
South Florida (20-13) is the third program Heath has led to the NCAA Tournament along with Kent State and Arkansas.
Kent State went 30-6 and reached the 2002 NCAA Elite Eight before losing to Indiana in Heath’s only season coaching the Golden Flashes.
Arkansas hired Heath to replace Nolan Richardson, who was fired as the Razorbacks’ coach on March 1, 2002.
Heath coached Arkansas from the 2002-2003 through 2006-2007 seasons and compiled an 82-71 record before being fired, including 22-10 and 21-14 his final two seasons.
Heath led the Razorbacks to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and 2006, but they lost first-round games to Bucknell and Southern California.
Arkansas’ failure to advance in the NCAA Tournament was cited among the factors by UA officials for firing Heath, along with the team having six scholarships available the next year and the feeling that either a coaching change or a longterm commitment to Heath was needed.
South Florida, which hired Heath shortly after he was fired by Arkansas, won a program-best 12 games in the Big East this season, a year after going 3-15 in conference play.
Heath, 47, was voted Big East Coach of the Year.
The Bulls tied for fourth place in the conference standings, then beat Villanova to make the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament, where an overtime loss to Notre Dame left them on the bubble with the NCAA selection committee.
The team practiced Sunday, ate dinner together and remained at the school’s new basketball practice facility to watch the NCAA selection show on television.
The field was announced region by region, and Heath conceded he and his players began to sweat a little when the South, West and East bracket were revealed and South Florida still hadn’t heard its name.
The Bulls, who sealed their bid with late conference victories over Cincinnati and Louisville, are among nine Big East teams in the 68-team field.
“It was a little nerve-racking, but it’s worth the wait,” Heath said.
The Bulls haven’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 1992, when they were members of the Metro Conference. They made their only only appearance in 1990 and are 0-2 in NCAA Tournament games.
“I think our wins down the stretch, winning at Louisville, winning against Cincinnati, two teams that played for the championship in the Big East Tournament were huge,” Heath said, adding that a onepoint home victory over Seton Hall — another bubble team that did not receive a berth — may have been a factor, too.
Heath was an assistant at Michigan State and helped Coach Tom Izzo assemble the talent that carried the Spartans to a national championship in 2000 and three Final Four appearances in five years, before taking over at Kent State.
Heath inherited a South Florida team that had lost 28 of 32 conference games in its first two seasons in the Big East.
“I felt we could turn the program around or I would have never have taken the job,” Heath said, reflecting on how far the Bulls have come in five years. “This is just one step going in the right direction. We’re building something. We’re not satisfied where we are. We see a bright future in front of us.”