To most Big East Conference teams in previous years, their annual match-up with the South Florida Bulls has been just another game on their schedule. When making predictions at the beginning of the season, USF has always been as sure of a win to their opponents as any other of the usual bottom dwellers in the conference like DePaul, Rutgers, or St John’s.
If you are like the rest of college basketball fans this season, you have been focused on some of the other top ranked Big East teams like Villanova, Syracuse and West Virginia, all of whom are in the hunt for #1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Although the top half of the conference is stacked and deserves your attention, don’t sleep on the amazing resergence of the South Florida hoops program.
While the school’s football program has broken through and had some great season’s recently, the basketball program is still in search of their first NCAA Tournament appearance. Don’t look now, but this may be their best chance to date to be “dancing” come March.
Fresh off surprising 72-64 thrashing of #7 Georgetown, which was their 2nd straight victory over a nationally ranked opponent, the Bulls(15-7, 5-5 Big East) are firmly on the “bubble” and are building a strong resume for a possible at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Finishing with a .500 record in the nation’s toughest conference would be paramount and almost surely would be a deciding factor to determine if USF is tournament worthy. They are an impressive 3-2 against ranked opponents this year with victories over Georgetown, Pitt, and Virginia, with some good losses to Syracuse and West Virginia.
With their 7 of 8 remaining conference games against sub .500 opponents, the Bulls stand a good chance of finishing among the top 4-6 teams in the conference at season’s end. Only a match-up looming against Big East leader, Villanova on Feb, 24th appears on paper, to be non winnable game.
A big reason for the Bulls coming of age this season is because of their stud at SG, in 6’4 junior Dominique Jones, who is currently 3rd in the conference in scoring at 22.4 ppg and is one of the best all around players in the nation that you’ve probably never heard of. He also provides 6.2 rebs, 4.2 ast, 2 steals, and almost 1 block per game.
Jones has been on a tear as of late averaging 31.5 ppg over his last 9 games, which includes a 46 point outburst against Providence on January 23rd, which is the highest output by any Big East player this season. Because of his scoring proficiency and his excellent all around abilities at the shooting guard position, Jones is drawing the attention of some NBA scouts, although word is, he probably will return for his senior season next year.
They have also gotten excellent production out of 6’11 junior Jarrid Famous(love the name), who has provided a front-court threat(11.3 ppg, 7.7 rebs) in absence of promising 2nd year player, Augustus Gilchrist, who was averaging 19 ppg, 5 rebs and 1 block before sustaining a serious injury which has limited him to only 8 games this season.
The future looks bright for a USF program which has won a combined 14 games over the past 2 seasons. They even have landed Lavonte Dority, who is a ESPN Top 150 point guard for 2010, who chose the Bulls over other elite schools like Indiana, Baylor, Wisconsin, and UNLV. In even more encouraging news, Gilchrist is making great strides in his rehab and could be in the line-up as early as Sunday against Notre Dame.
The rest of the Big East teams should take heed, the USF Bulls are no longer a push-over in the conference and just might burst the “bubble” of some other tourney hopefuls like Cinncinnati, Louisville, and Notre Dame who are hovering in the middle of the conference standings.
Check out some footage of Dominique Jones’ 46 points vs Providence:
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.
