USF men's basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim has died at age 43

University of South Florida basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, a rising star in the college coaching ranks, died Thursday after a battle with a serious illness, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He was 43 years old.

USF later confirmed the news and revealed that Abdur-Rahim died as a result of a medical procedure. Abdur-Rahim is survived by his wife and their three children.

The younger brother of NBA veteran Shareef Abdur-Rahim and a former all-conference player at Southeastern Louisiana, Abdur-Rahim spent more than a decade as an assistant coach at Murray State, College of Charleston, Texas A&M and Georgia before landing his first job as head coach at Kennesaw State in 2019.

He took over a moribund program that hadn't made the NCAA Tournament in its history since jumping to Division I in 2005. The team posted a 1-28 record in his first season, but improved each season with him at the helm.

The Owls improved to 5-19, then 13-18 and finally 26-9 in the 2022-23 season, with Atlantic Sun regular season and conference tournament titles. They also gave No. 3 seed Xavier a scare in the first round of their first NCAA Tournament berth, taking a 13-point lead in the second half before a cold stretch on offense allowed the Musketeers to come back and pull off an upset avoid.

It was one of the best coaching performances in the country and earned Abdur-Rahim the Hugh Durham Award as the best coach at a midsize program and a new job at a larger program at USF.

Success came even faster for Abdur-Rahim in Tampa. The Bulls went from 14-18 in the 2022-23 season to 25-8 last season, won the program's first regular-season conference title and narrowly missed an NCAA Tournament bid after a surprising loss in the conference tournament.

From USF:

With a track record like that, Abdur-Rahim was a name to keep an eye on for even bigger programs in the future. Instead, his story ended in tragedy weeks before the start of his second season at USF.