Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 3132
| PERSONAL INFORMATION | |
| Hometown: Elon, N.C. | |
| Education: Elon University 1988 | |
| Family: wife, Pam; son, Corey; daughter, Brianna | |
| COACHING EXPERIENCE | |
| 2014-present: Tulsa, head coach |
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| 2011-14: Missouri, head coach |
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| 2004-11 Miami, head coach |
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| TULSA HIGHLIGHTS | |
| - Led his 2020 team to the AAC championship - Was named the 2020 American Athletic Conference and NABC District 24 Coach of the Year - Has led TU to a three 20-win seasons and two postseason appearances - His 116 wins at TU rank fifth on the program's all-time coaching wins list entering the 2020-21 season |
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| MISSOURI HIGHLIGHTS | |
| - Two NCAA Tournament appearances and one NIT appearance
- Became the fastest Missouri coach to reach 50 wins
- The winningest coach at Missouri through two seasons with a 53-16 record- Won a Big 12 tournament title in 2011-12 |
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| MIAMI HIGHLIGHTS | |
| - Four NIT appearances and one NCAA Tournament appearance - Recorded the program's first postseason victories since 2000 |
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| COACHING HIGHLIGHTS | |
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- 2020 NABC District 24 Coach of The Year |
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| POSTSEASON HIGHLIGHTS | |
| - 19 Postseason Tournament Appearances - Nine NCAA Tournament Appearances - Three Sweet Sixteen Appearances - One Elite Eight Appearance • One Final Four Appearance • 2012 Big-XII Tournament Championship • Won 2000 NIT Championship • Coached USA Basketball in 2009 World University Games |
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Head Coach Frank Haith enters his eighth season at the helm of the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane with a record of 127-88 overall and 74-50 in American Athletic Conference play.
Since arriving at Tulsa, Haith has continued his success as a head coach in leading the Golden Hurricane basketball program. The Hurricane has won the third most AAC games in the time Haith has been here.
Haith guided the Hurricane during the 2020-21 season to an 11-12 record overall and 7-9 clip in conference play. Brandon Rachal was named second-team all-conference and NABC second-team all-district. Darien Jackson was named The American 6th Man of the Year, leading the conference in field goal percentage with a 64-percent clip.
Tulsa was once again the surprise team in The American in 2020 by winning a share of the regular season title with a 13-5 league mark and an overall 21-10 record despite being picked 10th in the preseason poll. It was the sixth consecutive year that TU outpaced its preseason projections, with Tulsa having four top-four finishes in the AAC over the past six seasons.
Tulsa’s 74 conference wins is third all-time in AAC history, trailing only Cincinnati and Houston, while it also puts Haith third historically among American Athletic Conference coaches for career league victories.
The 2019-20 season saw Tulsa takedown two more nationally ranked opponents, topping 20th-ranked Memphis by 40, and a thrilling buzzer-beating win over No. 23 Wichita State. Haith has now posted wins over five nationally ranked opponents since coming to Tulsa.
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.
In all, Haith’s Tulsa teams have compiled 20 wins in three seasons and advanced to the postseason in his first two seasons, while Hurricane players have collected nine all-conference honors. In 2019-20, Tulsa added two all-AAC selections with Igbanu earning first-team honors and Brandon Rachal being named third team. Igbanu was selected as the American Athletic Conference Sixth Man of the Year as well.
Haith was named the program’s 30th head coach on April 18, 2014. He carries more than 30 years of collegiate coaching experience and 19 years of advancing to postseason competition. His teams have averaged 20.1 wins in his 16 seasons as a head coach, while compiling an overall 303-205 record (321-205 on-court mark) for a .596 winning percentage, including a 116-76 (.604) record at Tulsa. Ten of his 16 teams have advanced to postseason competition.
In his first season at TU in 2014-15, Haith led the Golden Hurricane to a 23-11 record and an appearance in the second round of the postseason NIT. The Hurricane, which was picked to finish fifth in its first season of competition in the American Athletic Conference, finished second in the league with a 14-4 record and advanced to the semifinals of the AAC Tournament. TU boasted a 12-game winning streak during the season, which included a 10-0 start to conference play – its best league start since 1968-69.
In just his second season, Tulsa reached the NCAA Tournament for the 16th time in program history, and the fourth time in Haith’s head coaching career. The Hurricane tied for third in The American, and for the second straight year, James Woodard and Shaquille Harrison earned all-conference honors.
In 2018-19, Haith guided the Hurricane to 18 wins and TU outperformed its preseason prediction for the fifth-straight season. DaQuan Jeffries led the team in scoring and earned all-conference recognition before capping his career at TU by winning the College Slam Dunk title at the Final Four in Minneapolis. The Golden Hurricane posted 14 victories at home during the campaign, including wins over Oklahoma State and nationally-ranked Kansas State. The 14 home wins was the most in the Reynolds Center for the Hurricane since the 2009-10 season.
Haith was the 2012 Associated Press and United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) National Coach of the Year, while he also was a National Coach of the Year finalist in 2005. Before coming to Tulsa, he spent the previous 10 seasons as a head coach, including seven seasons at Miami (Fla.), followed by a three-year stint at Missouri.
Haith has transitioned all three programs into new conferences, moving Miami from the Big East Conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference and Missouri from the Big 12 Conference into the Southeastern Conference. Tulsa transitioned into the American Athletic Conference from Conference USA on July 1, 2014.
In his three seasons at Missouri, Haith’s teams posted a 76-28 record and advanced to the postseason in all three campaigns with a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (2012-13) along with a spot in the 2014 National Invitational Tournament. Haith became the fastest Mizzou head coach to post 50 wins and he was the winningest coach at Missouri through two seasons with a 53-16 record (.768).
His first team at Missouri was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 preseason poll but went on to record a school-record 30 victories and claim the Big 12 Tournament crown before it earned a No. 2 seed in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers’ 14 league wins also were a program record before winning their second-ever Big 12 Tournament title.
Following the historic season, Haith received recognition in the form of numerous coaching accolades, highlighted by the prestigious Henry Iba National Coach of the Year and Associated Press National Coach of the Year honors. He also was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year and was the USBWA District VI Coach of the Year. As a first-year coach, Haith guided his team to more regular-season wins than any other Mizzou coach before him, and he became the first Tiger head coach since 1920-21 to win his first 14 games.
The Tigers followed that up with a 23-11 record and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2012-13 before a 23-12 mark in Haith’s final season.
Missouri was the lone college basketball program in the 2012-13 season to advance to NCAA Tournament play with just one returning starter. Prior to Missouri’s NCAA Tournament run that year, the Tigers enjoyed their second undefeated season in Mizzou Arena history, going 17-0 at home with wins over a pair of nationally ranked opponents, including No. 5 Florida.
Miami returned to postseason play in 2006 as the Hurricanes won 18 games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT, recording the program’s first postseason victories since 2000. Over his final four seasons, Haith’s Miami squads averaged 21 wins per season, with four consecutive postseason trips, while three of the school’s six all-time 20-win ledgers came under Haith. His Miami teams won six total games in the NCAA and NIT, including a memorable run to the second round of the Big Dance in 2008. The `Canes went 23-11 in Haith’s fourth season, just one win shy of the school record and he was named a finalist for ACC Coach of the Year and Skip Prosser Man of the Year honors.
Haith paid his own way through Elon and graduated in 1988, while beginning his coaching career as a student assistant coach at the school in 1986. Haith helped the Phoenix twice win 20 games and he earned the opportunity to coach at Wake Forest in the 1989-90 season as a graduate assistant.
His first full-time coaching position on the Division I level came at UNC-Wilmington from 1990-92, and he then went on to a three-year stint at Texas A&M from 1992-95, in which he helped the Aggies reach postseason play in 1994.
A remarkable 21-win campaign during his lone season at Penn State (1995-96) allowed the Nittany Lions to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 31 years, and he returned to Texas A&M and the Big 12 Conference for one season as the Aggies’ Associate Head Coach in 1996-97. He then returned to Wake Forest for the 1997-98 season. The Demon Deacons reached postseason play each of his four years in Winston-Salem, including an NIT Championship in 2000 and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2001.
Haith parlayed that success at Wake Forest into an opportunity at Texas. Under Rick Barnes, Haith was, at the time, a part of the winningest three-year stretch in Texas Basketball history. The Longhorns averaged better than 24 wins per season and never failed to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns advanced to the Final Four in 2003 and Haith worked magic on the recruiting trail, ushering four McDonald’s All-Americans to Austin, including Brad Buckman (2002), LaMarcus Aldridge (2004), Daniel Gibson (2004) and Michael Williams (2004). Texas’ 2004 recruiting class was rated No. 2 nationally by Rivals.com, while Aldridge became the No. 2 overall draft pick by the Chicago Bulls in the 2006 NBA Draft.
Born in Queens, N.Y., Haith spent most of his childhood growing up in Burlington, N.C. He is one of 11 siblings. Haith and his wife Pam have two children: Corey, and Brianna.
Prominent Pupils Coached by Frank Haith
Josh Howard, Rodney Rodgers (Wake Forest), Jerald Brown (Texas A&M), LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson, PJ Tucker, Brad Buckman, Michael Williams (Texas), Rob Hite, Dequan Jones, Jack McClinton, Jimmy Graham, Dwayne Collins (Miami), Jordan Clarkson, Phil Pressey, Kim English, Jabari Brown, Alex Oriakhi, Marcus Denmon (Missouri), Shaquille Harrison, James Woodard, Rashad Smith, Brandon Swannegan, Junior Etou, DaQuan Jeffries (Tulsa)
