Frank Haith leaves Missouri to take Tulsa job
In perhaps the most surprising development in college basketball's offseason so far, Missouri coach Frank Haith has accepted the head coaching job at Tulsa.
ESPN and CBS first reported that Haith would make the move.
"This happened really quick," Haith said at a news conference Friday afternoon at Tulsa. "When you look at the history of this program ... that's what made me interested in this job.
... You want to be where there's passion. ... It had to take a place like this for me to leave Missouri. I had a great experience there."
It's rare that a coach leaves a Big 5 conference for a job like this. Tulsa just finished its final season in Conference USA and is set to join the American Athletic Conference this summer, but despite the American's success in its inaugural season, it's not the SEC.
Haith replaces Danny Manning, who left earlier this month for Wake Forest.
Tulsa President Steadman Upham said the school was looking for a coach with Division I coaching experience, a winning record in the last three years, and a coach who had switched conferences.
"When Danny left, he left us with a core of an extraordinarily talented team," Upham said. "It's a young team. To anyone who's watched them, it's self-evident they know how to play together, they learned how to play together. as a result and the NCAA appearance, we have a great platform to build on.
"We're going into the AAC; in basketball, it is a talented league. I think it will be a perennial 4-5 bid league in the NCAA tournament. And oh, by the way, the national champion is from the AAC."
Haith completed three seasons at Missouri, where he amassed a 76-28 record. But this season his Tigers missed the NCAA tournament despite having the talent — and expectation — to do so. Perhaps Haith is concerned that all it would take to be pushed out at Missouri would be yet another disappointing season, and he wanted to stay a step ahead.
Haith lost his top two leading scorers — Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson — to the NBA draft, and he's had to handle off-court issues, such as Louisville transfer Zach Price, who was kicked off the Missouri team before his career there even began after multiple arrests.
Haith was suspended for the first five games of last season by the NCAA after it was found that he inadequately monitored his former assistants' interactions with disgraced Miami booster Nevin Shapiro and then tried to cover up a five-figure hush money payment to keep potential violations hidden.
The Committee on Infractions report also found that Haith provided inconsistent answers during multiple interviews with investigators, including conflicting accounts of when he reported the shakedown attempt by Shapiro to Hurricanes athletic director Paul Dee.
"Most taxing time in my career," Haith said of the NCAA issues at Miami. "It was really, really emotional for me and my family to go through that. It lasted three years. I take full responsibility for things that happened under my watch. I served my five games. I wanted to appeal the process, but we chose not to so we could move forward."
Missouri now joins Tennessee as SEC programs in the hunt for a new coach.
In a letter to fans posted on the Missouri website, Tigers athletic director Mike Alden said Haith had informed him of the decision Friday morning.
"While we appreciate Coach Haith's contributions, our position as an institution — as we begin this search process — has never been stronger," Alden said in his statement. "The exposure, the resources, the facilities and the fan passion for each of our sport programs is at an all-time high and I'm looking forward to beginning the next chapter of Mizzou Basketball."
Contributing: The Associated Press
