University of South Carolina (Upstate)
NCAA DI • NULL
Date: July 2, 2026
Would Recommend
Tags
Man, y'all got my guy out here sounding like he some evil Bond villain or something. None and I mean none of that mess is true. I coached in the same school as him and I know the kind of man he is. He fought for those young ladies every single day and he fought just as hard for his staff. Shoot, he even went to bat for athletes in other programs when he thought they needed somebody in their corner. This is a man who changed practice schedules so the trainers could get home to their families, so players could work their jobs, and so they could make it to church. We used to clown him because he let one of his best players miss offseason practice to be in a university play. Not only did he let her do it, he had the whole team go support her. I've been coaching a long time, and I can count on one hand the folks I've been around with a coaching mind like Sharif's. That man is a coaching genius. He sees the game two or three steps ahead of everybody else, and that's something you can't teach. But that mess is getting lost because of this mess? Now folks talking about he racist. Come on now. The man is a minority coach who shared his own life experiences with his players. He was always trying to help young people grow, not tear anybody down. Then they want to call him abusive. I never saw that. No one did ever. What we saw was a coach that loved his players, cared about his staff, and held folks accountable. Nowadays people act like accountability is abuse. It ain't. What most people don't know is he was carrying a whole lot on his shoulders behind the scenes. His family was going through some things and he even had a cancer scare himself. That's a big reason why he decided it was time to leave. The folks that really know him already know what kind of man he is.