The most shocking news throughout the sports world during the month of October was the passing of University of South Florida (USF) Mens Basketball coach, and former Kennesaw State Mens Basketball coach, Amir Abdur-Rahim. Abdur-Rahim started off as an assistant coach for Murray State and worked his way up the ladder to eventually become the head coach of Kennesaw State’s struggling Owls Basketball team. He started off struggling with the underperforming roster that he inherited but turned the team into something special in the 2022 CBB season. The Kennesaw Basketball team went 26-9, which is their best record in school history. They won the Atlantic Sun (ASUN) season championship and the ASUN conference championship to make the NCAA tournament. After this magical season, Abdur-Rahim was hired as the USF Mens Basketball coach, and he took that team and won the American Athletic Conference (AAC) regular season championship and won the AAC Coach of the Year within his first season there.
On Thursday, October 24, 2024, Abdur-Rahim died during a surgery that ended his life in the hospital at the age of 43. After just turning the program of the USF Bulls around, the organization has to come together and put together a season with their head coach at the helm with the shocking events that conspired before the season started. Both of the teams that he served as the head coach for are remembering his life over the next couple weeks as they honor his playing career and coaching career in college basketball. Fans and players are going into this college basketball season looking to honor his legacy at USF and at Kennesaw State, opposed to shutting down the season because of this tragedy. Following the tragic passing of the former head coach, Abdur-Rahim’s assistant head coach, Ben Fletcher, has stepped in as an interim, hoping to replicate the former conference championship season for the USF Bulls. The hope for this season is to move forward with their team and do it for the former coach because it is what he would have wanted for the team after his passing rather than quitting on the season.