TAMPA, Fla. — In a season full of firsts, the University of South Florida men's basketball team is continuing to make history.
Head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim was unanimously selected as Coach of the Year on Tuesday, becoming the first USF coach to be named a conference Coach of the Year.
In his first season at South Florida, he led the Bulls to a 20-win season for just the sixth time in program history.
South Florida's 23 wins are the most during the regular season and one shy of tying the program record at 24.
USF earned its first-ever ranking in the AP Poll in late February after beating SMU 79-68 for its 13th straight win and reached No. 24 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll a week later.
The Bulls went on to stretch their streak to 15 games before losing to Tulsa 76-70 on Saturday.
Abdur-Rahim guided South Florida to 16 wins in conference play, the most in program history. He is the only coach to win both the program's regular-season and conference debuts.
Three South Florida players also won awards, including Chris Youngblood, who won Player of the Year, along with Florida Atlantic's Johnell Davis.
Youngblood is the program's first conference Player of the Year since Charlie Bradley in 1983. He also picked up a First-Team All-AAC, the first player to do so since Dominique Jones in 2010.
Youngblood averaged 15.7 points per game in conference play and led the conference with a 45% 3-point field goal percentage.
Selton Miguel earned his first Sixth Man of the Year award, the program's first winner since Altron Jackson in 2001. He also won his first Most Improved Player and landed All-Conference Second Team.
Jayden Reid was named to the AAC All-Freshman Team.
South Florida, which has the No. 1 seed for the 2024 American Men’s Basketball Championship after its first-ever AAC regular season title, will play the winner of Tulsa-East Carolina on Friday at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.
