Haith Named Basketball Recruiter Of The Year
May 24, 2004
Coral Gables, Fla. (hurricanesports.com) – University of Miami head men’s basketball coach Frank Haith has been named the Rivals.com 2004 National Basketball Recruiter of the Year. This is the first year that Rivals.com has named a basketball recruiter of the year. Only assistant coaches were eligible for consideration.
Haith, who was named Miami’s 11th head basketball coach on April 12th, was an assistant at the University of Texas for three seasons helping the Longhorns to their winningest three-year period in school-history.
During his tenure with the Longhorns they recorded a 73-27 (.730) record while advancing to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2002 and 2004, and the Final Four in 2003. The 2002-03 season marked UT’s first appearance in the Final Four since 1947.Haith helped the Longhorns land the top recruiting class in the nation during the 2004 recruiting season. Texas signed three McDonald’s All-Americans including LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson and Mike Williams, and kept two of the state’s top players close to home including Dion Dowdell and Conner Atchley.
Haith has recruited a total of six McDonald’s All-American’s including Rodney Rodgers (Wake Forest, 1990), Jerald Brown (Texas A&M, 1995), Brad Buckman (Texas, 2002), LaMarcus Aldridge (Texas, 2004), Daniel Gibson (Texas, 2004) and Michael Williams (Texas, 2004), and has coached six players that are in the NBA including T.J. Ford (Milwaukee Bucks), Joshua Howard (Dallas Mavericks), Chris Owens (Memphis Grizzlies), Darius Songaila (Sacramento Kings), Calvin Booth (Seattle Sonics) and Rodney Rogers (New Jersey Nets).
Prior to joining the staff at Texas, Haith coached at Wake Forest and was instrumental in helping lead the Demon Deacons to four consecutive postseason tournament appearances, including an NCAA first round showing in 2000-01. He also helped Wake Forest secure one of the nation’s Top 10 recruiting classes during the 1999-2000 campaign.
Since taking over at UM Haith has signed two recruits for next season including 6-2 guard Antoine Mayhand (Washington, D.C.) and 6-7 forward Raymond Hicks (Longview, Texas).