Rumor: Amir Abdur-Rahim reportedly not a serious candidate for the Cal Men’s Basketball position
The rollercoaster of a coaching cycle is just beginning.
After Marc Spears of ESPN reported that Amir Abdur-Rahim had interviewed for the open Men’s Basketball Head Coach position at Cal, new information from Jeff Schultz of The Athletic adds to the story. According to Jeff Schultz, Kennesaw State has been working on a new deal for Amir Abdur-Rahim and that Abdur-Rahim is not a serious candidate for the Cal job.
Amir Abdur-Rahim is currently the Head Coach at Kennesaw State. He is the brother of Cal great Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Amir Abdur-Rahim spent time as an Assistant Coach at Texas A&M under Billy Kennedy before moving back to be an assistant under Tom Crean at Georgia. Abdur-Rahim was a big factor in Georgia recruiting future #1 NBA draft pick, Anthony Edwards and keeping him home. He led Kennesaw State to it’s first NCAA appearance but lost in the first round to Xavier.
Its pretty enjoyable reading WFC and hearing the various takes regarding Amir Abdur Rahim. The coach's career trajectory is trending upwards, period. The small group that continues to endorse the Mark Fox run as HC is unbelievable. All coaches at the D-1 level, or Power 5 conferences are going to deploy a system. Many players are turned off by a slow it down, walk it up, pass the ball around the perimeter, until the shot clock is ready to expire, then have very limited options, because the defensive team has taken away any choice that is high percentage. Any ballclub that is then forced to play from behind on the scoreboard, does not make in game adjustments will generally end up with a 3- 29 record on the season, featured by a final 16 game losing streak and last in the Conference. Many passionate Bears fans chose not to attend the games at Haas, and rightfully so,it was awful coaching, and painful to watch. I sincerely hope that the same search firm that delivered Mark Fox is never deployed again, in any capacity, in a terribly rushed and flawed process. Further, I believe that a rebuild needs to be a top priority, bearing in mind where the University wants to be in the realm of intercollegiate athletics. Cal stays a top three in the ranking of academic institutions, but may be trending towards de-emphasizing sports and how much of the overall budget is allocated in support of these programs can't be overlooked. I would have supported a coaching change during the season, and using the interim tag with the assistant, and getting a head start on the nationwide search, as those schools who did that,have already made new hires.(Pitino-St John,Cooley-Georgetown),As Cal basketball made its way into the record books, with losses, fans and supporters were conspicuous by their absence at every game, while many also called for the administration to act now with the removal of both; AD Knowlton as well as the HC,Fox.It may have been a bit premature to award the AD a contract extension, further complicating the process of replacing he, and the unsuccessful coach. Money used in a structured buyout would clearly impact a compensation package to lure and land a dynamic coach. Deferred compensation or a back loaded contract exists in the realm of creative ways to get who you want, while fully understanding that this rebuild is not going to happen overnight. With the NIL demands and transfer portals,graduate transfers being what they are, some universities are having to rethink their position. As of this writing, Cal just lost, for now, 2 players (Kuany Kuany, Joel Brown) to the transfer portal and I believe the 2 So Cal recruits, who signed early letters of intent can ask to be released from those commitments, now that the coach who recruited them has been let go This is a messy situation and will require a deep cleaning before the new coach and Department leadership are brought aboard.
Feels like it's coming from Kennesaw St, who surely would very much like to keep him there.