Frank James Haith Jr. (born November 3, 1965) is an American men's basketball coach, currently serving as an assistant coach for the University of Memphis. He previously served as head coach of the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane The Golden Hurricane are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tulsa. These teams are referred to as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (or variously as TU or Tulsa). Before adopting the name Golden Hurricane in 1922, the University of T ...

from 2014 to 2022, and prior to that he served as the head coach at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

and the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, leaving both programs in the midst of NCAA investigations.

Early life

Frank Haith was born in Queens, New York to Frank Haith, Sr. and Dolores Haith. At the age of five, Haith was sent with his older sister to Burlington, North Carolina, where they were raised by their grandmother, Ethel Mae Haith. They were joined by their three remaining siblings six years later when their mother died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

."Humble start sculpted Haith's character."
By Steve Walentik, Columbia Daily Tribune, April 17, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2013

Career

Early career

Prior to his job at Miami, Haith had been an assistant coach for 15 years at such programs as

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

UNCW The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW or UNC Wilmington) is a public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina System and enrolls 17,499 undergraduate and graduate students eac ...

, Penn State, Wake Forest, and

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, Elon is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or professional doctora ...

. As an assistant coach he recruited six McDonald's All-Americans,

Rodney Rogers Rodney Ray Rogers (born June 20, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who played for several teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Early life Rogers was the fourth and youngest child born to Willie Wardsworth ...

in 1990 to Wake Forest, Jerald Brown in 1995 to Texas A&M, Bradley Buckman in 2002 to Texas, and

LaMarcus Aldridge LaMarcus Nurae Aldridge (born July 19, 1985) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for two seasons with the Texas Longhorns. ...

, Daniel Gibson, and Michael Williams in 2004 to Texas.

Miami

Haith was hired on April 11, 2004 and tasked with leading the Hurricanes into the Atlantic Coast Conference. In his first season, Haith took a team that was coming off two straight losing seasons and picked to finish last in the ACC and guided it to the postseason for the first time since 2002. As a result, Haith was a finalist for the Naismith National Coach of the Year Award. Haith again took Miami to the NIT in 2005, and the Hurricanes won their first two games before bowing out in a loss to the Michigan Wolverines. It was just the second time in Miami's basketball history that the Hurricanes had won back-to-back postseason games. Haith reached just one NCAA tournament as the head coach at Miami, leading the Hurricanes to a second-round appearance in 2008. The next season, Haith's team returned four starters, including sharpshooter Jack McClinton. Miami began the season ranked 16th in the USA Today/ESPN pre-season poll, and the media picked it to finish fourth in the ACC. However, Miami finished below .500 in conference play and missed the NCAA tournament, instead participating in the NIT. The following season, Haith's team finished in last place in the ACC. Haith has also led the Hurricanes to success off-the-court. Under Haith's tenure, all 8 Miami senior basketball players who have completed their eligibility have earned their degrees. Miami also placed three players on the ACC All-Academic basketball team for the 2004–2005 season, more than any school in the conference.

Infractions

An investigation in the

Nevin Shapiro Nevin Karey Shapiro (born April 13, 1969) is a convicted felon who currently is imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for Un ...

scandal at Miami's football program also uncovered impropriety in the men's basketball program. After years of investigation, on October 22, 2013, the NCAA handed Haith, who had by that point left for Missouri, a five-game suspension to open the 2013–14 season. Once Haith returned to the sideline the club managed to rack up wins over Northwestern, Nevada, West Virginia, UCLA and at NC State to complete the non-conference season.

Missouri

On April 4, 2011, Haith accepted the head coaching job at the

First year (2011–12 season)

In his first year at Missouri, Haith inherited a team that a year before went 23–11 and lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. From that team, only nine players returned for Haith's first year, leaving him with a short bench, though the team had six seniors and had been to the NCAA tournament each of the last three seasons. The bench got even shorter when senior Laurence Bowers, the team's second-best returning scorer and leading rebounder, went down with a torn ACL before the season began and after the first semester when sophomore Kadeem Green transferred. The loss of both Bowers and Green left Haith with only two post players and just seven total scholarship players for his first season at Mizzou. To make up for this deficiency, Haith and his staff put into place a four-guard system to attempt to take advantage of the speed, passing, and outside shooting of his roster. The system resulted in the Tigers setting a school record for the most regular season wins with 27. The Tigers went 13–0 in the non-conference and 14–4 in Big 12 play, and went 3–0 in the

Sprint Center T-Mobile Center (formerly Sprint Center) is a multi-purpose arena in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. It is located at the intersection of 14th Street and Grand Boulevard on the east side of the Power & Light District. It has effectively become ...

in Kansas City to win the Big 12 tournament. At 30–4, the Tigers were given a 2-seed in the West bracket of the NCAA tournament, where they were upset by 15-seed Norfolk State 86–84 in their first game, ending their season at 30–5. On March 19, 2012, the United States Basketball Writers Association awarded Haith the

Henry Iba Award The Henry Iba Award was established in 1959 to recognize the best college basketball coach of the year by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Five nominees are presented and the individual with the most votes receives the a ...

as national coach of the year. On March 30, 2012, Haith was named the

Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year The Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year award was established in 1967 to recognize the best men's college basketball coach of the year, as voted upon by the Associated Press (AP). A parallel award for women's coaches was added in ...

Second year (2012–13 season)

Haith's second year at Missouri began with plenty of promise, as the Tigers began the season ranked #14 and blended a quality group of transfers in Alex Oriakhi (UConn), Jabari Brown (Oregon), Keion Bell (Pepperdine) and Earnest Ross (Auburn) in with returning point guard

Phil Pressey Phillip Michael Pressey (born February 17, 1991) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who played at the point guard position. He is assistant coach for Missouri Tigers men's basketball. His prior professional teams wer ...

and Laurence Bowers, who was returning from a knee injury. The Tigers started 5–0 before losing to #2

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas in late November. Mizzou would reel off six straight wins after that, including defeating NCAA Tournament teams VCU and #10

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

in St. Louis. Ranked #7 in the country, Mizzou lost to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

before beating Bucknell heading into its inaugural season in the SEC. In conference play, Mizzou went 11–7, with all of those losses coming on the road. The Tigers defeated #5

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Mizzou Arena Mizzou Arena is an indoor arena located on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Home to the school's men's and women's basketball teams, the facility opened in November 2004 and replaced the Hearnes Center as the school' ...

and won three of their final four games heading into the

SEC tournament The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sponsors nine men's sports and twelve women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. Also see the list of SEC national champions. Members The SEC was established on December 1932, when t ...

. Mizzou beat former

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

rival

in the second round of the tournament before losing to Ole Miss in the quarterfinals, 64–62. With a 23–10 record, the Tigers secured a 9-seed in the Midwest bracket of the NCAA tournament, where they had to play 8-seed Colorado State. The

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Rupp Arena Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center is an arena located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Since its opening in 1976, it has been the centerpiece of Central Bank Center (formerly Lexington Center), a convention and shopping facility o ...

, 84–72.

Third year (2013–14 season)

With Haith sitting out the first five games of the season due to the NCAA suspension, assistant

Tim Fuller Timothy Floyd Fuller (born February 7, 1978) is the Vice President of Recruiting and Player Personnel at Overtime Elite. He is the former associate head basketball coach at the University of Missouri. He has worked as an assistant coach under Er ...

started the season as interim coach. However, Missouri credits the entire season to Haith. Haith's third team was hit hard by roster turnover, losing Pressey early to the NBA, Laurence Bowers, Keion Bell and

Alex Oriakhi Alex Oriakhi Jr. (pronounced "Or-e-ah-ki"; born June 21, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Depiro Rabat Imtarfa of the Maltese Division One Basketball league. He was the starting center for the Connecticut Huskies' 2010–1 ...

to graduation, and Negus Webster-Chan, Stefan Jankovic and Dominique Bull to transfers. Haith's Tigers finished 9–9 in league play to finish sixth, but once again logged impressive wins over UCLA, West Virginia, Nevada, NC State in non-league play and a sweep of Arkansas. Mizzou beat Texas A&M in the second round of the

, but lost to eventual champion and #1 ranked

in the quarterfinals, 72–49. With a 22–11 record, the Tigers secured an invitation to the NIT, where they beat Davidson in round one before losing to

Southern Miss The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

in the second round. In 2016, the University of Missouri announced findings of an internal investigation that uncovered violations occurring throughout Haith's tenure at the school. As part of its self-imposed sanctions, Missouri vacated all wins from the 2013–14 season, bringing Haith's official record while coaching the Tigers to 53–28 (25–20 in conference play).

Tulsa

On April 17, 2014, Haith reportedly agreed to leave Missouri to become head coach at the University of Tulsa. Haith reportedly text messaged the athletic director of Missouri and told him he was going to be taking the Tulsa job after they failed to connect the previous evening. A USA Today article reports Haith called Mike Alden the night before accepting the job and replied to a text response from Alden after Alden did not take his call. Haith was introduced as Tulsa's new coach on April 18 after signing a six-year contract worth about $1.3 million per year. In his first year at Tulsa, Haith led the Golden Hurricane to a 23–11 record with key wins over Connecticut, Temple, and Memphis. In his second season Haith and the Golden Hurricane returned to the NCAA Tournament falling to Michigan in the First Four in Dayton. Tulsa defeated #9 Wichita State in non-league play and went 12-6 in AAC play. Tulsa notched one of its most impressive wins of the year with an 82-77 win at #16 SMU, snapping the Mustangs 15-game home winning streak. In Haith's tenure at Tulsa the Golden Hurricane rank third in the AAC in wins and Haith is the second-winningest coach in AAC history. Tulsa has recorded numerous wins over ranked opponents, including a win over #5 Houston in 2020-21, #20 Memphis and #23 Wichita State in 2019-20 and #16 Kansas State in 2018-19. In 2020, Tulsa claimed its first AAC Championship, with a 13-5 record in AAC play. Tulsa has finished above its predicted AAC preseason projection every year under Haith and with his team's stellar performance Haith was named AAC Coach of the Year. He was also named NABC District 24 Coach of the Year. On-court success is not the only area where Haith has led the TU to a resurgence. The program has established school records for single year and multi-year APR records. The Hurricane has broken program records for semester and cumulative GPA. His program has graduated 20-of-22 seniors with two players –– Shaquille Harrison in 2016 and Martins Igbanu in 2020 –– earning American Athletic Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year honors. Tulsa boasts two active NBA players –– DaQuan Jeffries with the Sacramento Kings and Harrison with the Chicago Bulls –– while Haith has also had numerous players sign professional contracts abroad including both 2020 seniors Lawson Korita and Igbanu. Haith resigned on March 12, 2022.

Personal life

Haith is a 1988 graduate of

(then Elon College). He and his wife, Pam, have two children; one son, Corey, and one daughter, Brianna. Corey is a member of Haith's coaching staff at the University of Tulsa, while his daughter is a nationally-renowned dancer. Haith's nephew, Sean Bell, was killed by

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

police in a controversial November 25, 2006 shooting incident.

Head coaching record

References

External links