Colleges

USF's search ends with Heath

The ex-Arkansas coach agrees to a five-year deal with Bulls.

By GREG AUMAN
Published April 3, 2007

TAMPA - It's safe to say that if and when Stan Heath leads USF to the NCAA Tournament, he's not going to get fired for it.

After more than three weeks of searching, the Bulls found their basketball coach Monday in Heath, who will be introduced today after agreeing to a five-year deal that could pay as much as $4.27-million with incentives.

Heath, 42, was surprisingly fired last week at Arkansas after his second straight 20-win season and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. USF, by comparison, has been to the NCAA Tournament twice in its history, and not in the past 15 years. Winning 20 games? The Bulls have only done that twice, and not since 1990.

Heath and athletic director Doug Woolard flew Monday from the Final Four in Atlanta to Arkansas to pick up his family, and Heath will make his first appearance as USF's coach at a news conference at 3:30 today.

After nearly a month of waiting, Monday's news was well-received among Bulls fans, now eager to see where Heath can take the program.

"Everybody's upbeat, everybody's excited," said Mike Charles, an Iron Bull donor and past president of the Bulls Club. "I think we have a proven commodity. I believe he was successful in the SEC, and I think he's going to be successful in the Big East."

Heath, a Detroit native, is 112-77 and has made the NCAAs in three of his six seasons, taking Kent State to the Elite Eight in 2002 and going twice with Arkansas.

He was an assistant for five seasons under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, helping the Spartans to a national title in 2000 and building a reputation as a top recruiter.

"He's going to do a phenomenal job at South Florida," said Mateen Cleaves, a two-time Big Ten player of the year and MVP of the Final Four in 2000. "He's a great recruiter, but he's great with the X's and O's. He can be a disciplinarian when he has to be, but his door was always open for us. I was surprised when Arkansas let him go, but South Florida got a steal."

Heath replaces Robert McCullum, who was fired March 9 after going 40-76 in four seasons, including 4-28 in Big East play the past two years. McCullum will be paid about $500,000 for the remaining two years on his contract. Exact terms of Heath's deal were not released, but his base salary looks to be more than double McCullum's.

Woolard had initially pursued Winthrop coach Gregg Marshall, believed to be the only candidate brought to Tampa to tour the campus and meet school administrators. Woolard also spoke with South Alabama coach John Pelphrey and was linked to former coaches Pete Gillen and Fran Fraschilla, and over the weekend talked with former college and NBA coach Kevin O'Neill.

"I think it's a terrific hire," said Fraschilla, an ESPN analyst. "First of all, Stan is a quality guy with great basketball bloodlines, as a player at Eastern Michigan for Ben Braun and going back to working with Tom Izzo, but the fact that he handled his situation at Arkansas with such grace and class and became a better coach in Year 5 than he was in Year 1 or 2, makes him a really good hire."

Last week, Heath spoke of how his years in the SEC gave him confidence about his ability to compete in the Big East. Only the top 12 of the league's 16 teams make the conference tournament, and USF is the only school to miss that cut both of the past two years.

"I don't think there's a more competitive conference from top to bottom, and I think that's definitely an advantage," Heath said last week. "(The Big East) is a great league, definitely one of the top leagues in college basketball, with great basketball players and great basketball coaches. Night in, night out, it's a challenge."

Heath could get Mississippi high school forward Jenirro Bush to follow him to USF. Bush has committed to Arkansas but is free to sign elsewhere when the spring signing period opens next week.

Arkansas guard Patrick Beverley, the SEC freshman of the year, also talked of following Heath, but Beverley told the Associated Press on Monday that he was staying at Arkansas.

Oronde Taliferro, who played under Heath at Wayne State and has been his assistant for six years, said Monday that it's a "strong possibility" he'll follow Heath to USF, though he has talked to other schools in the past week.

[Last modified April 2, 2007, 23:19:39]