Small follows Abdur-Rahim to South Florida
MBB: Small worked for Steve Prohm at Murray State and Iowa State
The University of South Florida’s Men’s Basketball program continues to add coaches with Murray State ties. Weeks after former Racer assistant Amir Abdur-Rahim became the head coach at USF, William Small, another former Murray State assistant, is joining Abdur-Rahim in Tampa.
Small spent four years in Murray with Steve Prohm from 2011-15, where he coached both Isaiah Canaan and Cameron Payne. When Prohm left Murray State to go to Iowa State in the spring of 2015, Small joined Prohm in Ames. After the 2020-21 season, Small headed to Kennesaw State to join Abdur-Rahim’s rebuilding of the KSU program. In their second year together, Abdur-Rahim and Small helped lead the Owls to their first-ever ASUN championship and their maiden voyage to the NCAA Tournament. As a 14-seed, Kennesaw State lost a late lead, and the game, to 3-seed Xavier 72-67 in the opening round of the tournament.
Abdur-Rahim worked alongside Prohm under Billy Kennedy during Kennedy’s tenure at Murray State.
"I am ecstatic to add Coach Small, his wife Paula, and daughter Chiya to our USF Basketball family," Abdur-Rahim said in a statement. "Coach Small is someone who over the last 20 years has impacted my life in a major way. When he recruited me out of Garden City Community College, he was always someone who told me the truth and pushed me to be a better version of myself. Coach Small has worked with, recruited and developed student-athletes at every level of college basketball. He has coached NBA players such as Courtney Lee, Isaiah Canaan, Cameron Payne, Monte Morris, Georges Niang, Talon Horton-Tucker and Tyrese Haliburton. Coach Small is a blue-collar, roll your sleeves up type of a man. The immediate impact he had on our program at Kennesaw State was incredible and right on time. I know he will do the same here at South Florida."