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One Loss Won't Deter USF's Heath

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2007

Updated: 11/10/2007 12:55 am

TAMPA - No one said it would be easy.

No one ever says that around South Florida men's basketball, season after season, coach after coach.

It was the new man's turn Friday night at the Sun Dome. The Stan Heath Era began, and we were reminded of an axiom: When you play in the Big East, it's never a good thing to lose to Cleveland State.

But that's what the Bulls did Friday, 73-70, and from eight points ahead with less than five minutes left, outscored 12-0 when it mattered.

Hey, Kentucky just lost to Gardner-Webb, so calm down. And USF was without its best player, Kentrell Gransberry, who served a one-game suspension for playing in a non-sanctioned summer tournament, because, as the new coach says, "He went and got bone-headed." It's only one game. And it's Stan Heath.

"I will not be deterred," Heath said.

Good thing.

This Is His Team Now

Seth Greenberg fled. Robert McCullum was fired. The next coach in line doesn't give up easily. The USF basketball moonscape is not for the faint-hearted or -headed.

It's for Stan Heath.

This is a guy who once applied for a job by mailing Michigan State coach Tom Izzo a mannequin's arm with the note, "I'd give my right arm to work for you." He got the job. Now he's got this one.

USF has nowhere to go but up. The Bulls last made the NCAA Tournament 15 years ago.

They won only four of 32 conference games across their first two seasons in the Big East.

"There's definitely a gap right now between the talent we have to face and the talent we have, so we've got to offset that," Heath said the day before Friday's opener. "It just means we have to find a different way to win games, whether it's our style, or our attention to detail, our ability to maybe shoot 3's instead of 2's."

The real question we had Thursday was why he sent a fake arm to Izzo, seeing as his dad is a funeral director. The son actually spent a summer delivering caskets.

"I've been around bodies," Heath said. "I've seen the dead. That'll put a three-game losing streak in perspective real quick. I've seen worse. Tell you one thing: You never have to worry about unemployment in that business. You always got clients."

He grinned.

"Coaching isn't quite like that, employment-wise."

Heath lost his job at Arkansas after five seasons, despite making the NCAA Tournament the final two. If he makes the NCAA Tournament twice here, they'd build a statue to him on the Fowler Avenue campus, you know, with the bronze they were going to use for the 50-foot-tall Jim Leavitt perfect-season one.

"Every one of those players has returned at Arkansas," Heath said. "They're now ranked in the Top 20. Go look. That's my team."

Actually, this is.

A Good Fit

This will be a tall order for the 42-year-old and invariably successful Heath, who just five years ago, as a rookie coach at Kent State, won 30 games en route to the NCAA Elite Eight.

Heath had friends in the business tell him USF was a no-win situation. He came away from his talks with USF athletic director Doug Woolard and USF president Judy Genshaft with a different take.

"I feel very comfortable with Doug and Judy," Heath said. "I think they're going to try everything to put this program in a better situation. I'll be very surprised if that doesn't happen."

He was very surprised at what happened Friday, before an announced crowd of 3,618. The Bulls led 67-59 with 4:29 left. Then the roof fell in. Mistakes, misses, turnovers, everything. The Stan Heath Era is 0-1.

The new man will not be deterred. He thinks his goals for his first season sound reasonable (for now).

"Big East Tournament, NIT," Heath said.

Seth Greenberg made the NIT twice. Robert McCullum's Bulls were 0-for-2 at Big East Tournaments. No one said this would be easy.

"We took a shot in the mouth tonight," Stan Heath said. "But I think we'll respond."

He's seen worse.

So have we.

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