ESPN Men's Basketball

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Frank Haith grew up in North Carolina, watching Atlantic Coast Conference basketball.

Now Miami believes he's the right man to lead them into the powerful league.

Dick Vitale's Take

Miami and St. John's finally have made their choices for a new coach, and both schools picked new leaders who are young, aggressive, ambitious and proven recruiters. Both tabbed assistants from the Big 12 Conference to run their respective programs. Miami picked Frank Haith from the hot Texas program. He has been the associate head coach under Rick Barnes. Haith also gained valuable experience on the Wake Forest staff. Meanwhile, St. John's opted for Norm Roberts, who had great success as an assistant for nine seasons on Bill Self's benches at Kansas, Illinois, Tulsa and Oral Roberts. More...

Haith, who spent the past three seasons as an assistant at Texas and has no previous head coaching experience, took over the reins Monday of a Miami program that endured consecutive losing seasons under Perry Clark, who was fired last month.

``He is, in my opinion, the top assistant coach in the country and has proven to be one of the nation's top recruiters,'' Miami athletic director Paul Dee said.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz reported Saturday that Haith accepted a five-year deal.

A turnaround will not be easy at Miami.

The Hurricanes haven't reached postseason play in either of the past two seasons and failed to even make the Big East Tournament last season. While the basketball program may be overshadowed by the football team, Haith said he's ready for the challenge.

``Things are in place here ... it's just some nuts and bolts and things we got to do to put this thing together,'' said Haith, who signed a five-year deal believed to be worth at least $400,000 annually. ``That's going to take some time. It's not going to happen overnight.''

Clark went 64-55 in four years, but he was 25-33 the last two -- hardly what Miami was looking for when it built a $48 million on-campus arena that opened in 2002. Miami lost 10 straight games near the end of this season, its longest losing streak in a decade, and failed to reach the Big East tournament.

Haith, 38, has been an assistant at Wake Forest, Texas A&M, Penn State, UNC-Wilmington and Elon, his alma mater. The ACC experience he gained at Wake Forest (1997-2001) will be important, since Miami begins play in that league this season.

``He grew up in ACC territory,'' Texas coach Rick Barnes said. ``He understands where the Miami program is right now and what has to be done.''

Haith's recruiting skills will be tested quickly. His first order of business will be convincing 6-foot-11 center C.J. Giles, Washington's Class 3A player of the year, to come to Miami. When Clark was fired, Giles started wavering on the letter of intent he signed with the Hurricanes.

Haith also has two other scholarships to fill, and time is short -- signing day is Wednesday.

Haith was one of five people Miami interviewed for the job. Others were Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez, Alabama-Birmingham coach Mike Anderson, Virginia Commonwealth coach Jeff Capel and Kansas associate head coach Norm Roberts.

Anderson and Capel removed themselves from consideration last week after signing extensions at their current schools. Gonzalez said Sunday he respected Miami's decision to hire a coach with strong ACC ties.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.