By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, APRIL 17, 2014 – Basketball players suiting up in green and gold at USF are in a unique situation.
The Bulls added championship experience when Orlando Antigua was named head coach on March 31 and Antigua was quick to set expectations for a new era of USF men's basketball.
“We will run a championship program, one that will compete against the best on the court, in the classroom and on the recruiting trails,” he said. “I want our players to have an incredible college experience that includes winning.”
Antigua wants to get the most out of his Bulls and part of his plan included adding an assistant coach that has a basketball resume any player with NBA dreams would admire. Rod Strickland, a 17-year NBA veteran guard, was officially named to the staff on Monday after he jumped at the chance to work for an old friend he's been around for a while.
Strickland spent the past five seasons serving with Antigua on John Calipari's Kentucky staff and the two spent the 2008-09 season together with Calipari at Memphis. Antigua and Strickland also have coached the Dominican Republic national team together and both grew up in the Bronx playing for the Gauchos, an AAU program in New York.
“We've grown from Memphis to Kentucky to the Dominican Republic team. We've grown big-time together and I have great respect for him,” Strickland said Wednesday. “He's a great person and that's why I followed him here. I believe in him and I believe what he stands for and I believe what he's about, otherwise I wouldn't have followed him here.”
The current Bulls on the roster may be too young to appreciate just how good of a basketball player Strickland was, but a quick history lesson will certainly grab their attention. Strickland was a first-round pick by the Knicks in 1988 and racked up 14,463 points and 7,987 assists in 1,094 games with New York, San Antonio, Portland, Washington, Miami, Minnesota, Orlando, Toronto and Houston during his storied career. Any fans of the New York rap group Wu-Tang Clan would know Strickland is a popular name they bring up and he's mentioned for his pump-fake ability at the end of the song “Triumph.”
“One of the players texted me a YouTube video, I don't think they really know,” Strickland said with a smile. “I think he checked on me and did a little background.”
Strickland said he isn't at USF to give players a history lesson on his career, however, and has a goal of making the team better by passing down knowledge about the game and showing them how hard you have to work to reach the next level.
“I'm not one of those guys sitting here telling them about my 17-year career,” Strickland said. “I don't think kids want to hear that and I don't think it's necessary. I think they'll respect you if they feel you have an interest in them and you have their best interest in heart.”
Strickland wrapped up his NBA career with the Rockets in 2005 and he didn't have to wait long to get his coaching career in motion. Calipari added the former All-American at DePaul to his Memphis staff in 2006 and the two stayed at the school until they made the move to Kentucky in 2009. Strickland served as a special assistant to Calipari while Antigua also was an assistant with the Wildcats during a five-year run that included four NCAA tournament appearances, three Final Four appearances and a national championship in 2012.
“I'm a basketball guy. If I didn't start coaching after playing I would be out in the parks playing now,” Strickland said. “Luckily when I left the league I had an opportunity to go over to Memphis with John Calipari and experience that, and then go to Kentucky and experience something even greater. I think I've accomplished a lot, I've grown and I think I've learned a lot.”
Clearly an NBA ego hasn't followed Strickland to Tampa and the New York City Basketball Hall of Famer insists he's here to help Antigua with anything required to get the Bulls back on top.
“My responsibility is to be an assistant coach, so whatever my head coach needs me to do, that's what I do,” said Strickland, whose duties will include hitting the recruiting trails.
Strickland said he's been impressed with it all since arriving in Tampa.
“This was a chance to go outside and do something different,” Strickland said. “I've come to a great place with great facilities, a great town and great weather, and to be able to come in and try to do something special was just a great opportunity.”
Strickland said the staff that also includes assistant Oliver Antigua, Orlando's younger brother, will teach the Bulls about accountability, unselfishness and how to be a great teammate as the group works to take USF's game to a new level in the upcoming seasons. Strickland said they'll look to build a strong bond within the program as a whole, which helped Kentucky accomplish great things during their time with the Wildcats.
“Once you have that unity and everybody together as far as the coaches, the players and administration you can build something,” Strickland said. “That's what we've done together at our past stops and that's probably where we're going to start.”
The Bulls already have gotten a taste of the staff's hard working mentality during sessions on the court in the past week and Strickland said the coaches will lead the program with the players' best interest in mind.
“I think with all of us collectively as a group, I think they understand we're here in a positive way and we're trying to build something,” Strickland said. “We're trying to instill some things in them that are going to make them better basketball players and people.”
