South Florida Bulls
Big East Conference (20-13, 12-6)
South Florida did not deserve to make the NCAA Tournament. They were on the bubble for finishing so highly in the deep Big East conference, which is a legitimate enough reason. However, their impressive record seems to have been obtained with smoke, mirrors and luck. First of all, their out-of-conference performance this season was atrocious. They lost six games before conference play even began, putting them at 7-6 heading into their Big East slate with their best win perhaps coming at home, against Cleveland State. The 16 team Big East then has a somewhat unbalanced regular season schedule simply because there are not enough games available for everyone to play each other twice. In fact, each squad only faces a handful of opponents twice. South Florida seemed to catch the breaks this season. Syracuse, Marquette, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Louisville, Cincinnati, Seton Hall, UConn and West Virginia are the nine best teams in the conference. They all comfortably made the NCAA Tournament or were on the bubble all winter long. South Florida did not face any of these teams twice and they lost six of these nine matchups to boot with the only wins coming by one point each against Seton Hall and Cincinnati and a big seven point victory at Louisville.
Big Wins: 12/19 Cleveland State (70-55), 2/19 at Pittsburgh (56-47), 2/29 at Louisville (58-51)
Bad Losses: 11/19 vs Old Dominion (66-68), 11/20 vs Penn State (49-53), 12/14 at Auburn (40-52)
Coach: Stan Heath (5 seasons at South Florida)
Why They Can Surprise:
There is not a ton to love about this Bulls team. Head Coach Stan Heath has some tournament experience, although his ventures into the NCAA’s have come outside of South Florida. The roster itself is very experienced and deep. Containing eight upperclassmen, the Bulls routinely play nine guys and have 10 players who averaged at least 12 minutes per game. Senior forward Augustus Gilchrist leads the team in points and blocks. As a unit, the Bulls are not a good rebounding team but do collect a lot of offensive rebounds. Gilchrist, along with Ron Anderson Junior, have amassed well over half their rebounds on the offensive end. This came in handy in a number of their conference games. For example, in South Florida’s two wins over Villanova, they out-rebounded the Wildcats by a combined 17 boards, +12 on the offensive side.
Why They Can Disappoint:
The rest of South Florida’s numbers are not pretty. They rank near the bottom of division one basketball in points per game. They also rank in the bottom half in shooting percentage and have a negative assist to turnover ratio as a team. The season results really reflect that, conference record be damned, this is not a very good basketball team. Even putting the six non-conference losses aside, nearly all of their Big East wins have come at home or against the bottom six teams in the conference or both. Certainly Stan Heath should be proud of the season they have had and the record they were able to accumulate but not much should be expected of the Bulls in postseason play.
Probable Starters:
Anthony Collins, Freshman, Guard, 8.5 ppg, 5.3 apg
Hugh Robertson, Senior, Guard, 6.8 ppg, 1.3 apg, 4.3 rpg
Victor Rudd Jr., Sophomore, Forward, 8.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg
Ron Anderson Jr., Senior, Forward, 7.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg
Augustus Gilchrist, Senior, Forward, 9.6 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.3 bpg
Key Roleplayers:
Jawanza Poland, Junior, Guard, 8.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg
Shaun Noriega, Junior, Guard, 3.6 ppg
Toarlyn Fitzpatrick, Junior, Forward, 8.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.0 bpg
Blake Nash, Sophomore, Forward, 3.7 ppg, 1.1 apg
By the Numbers:
Scoring Offense: 59.5 (319th in nation, 16th in conference)
Scoring Defense: 57.2 (8, 1)
Field-Goal Percentage: 43.9 (148, 8)
Field-Goal Defense: 38.9 (18, 5)
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 4.6 (307, 15)
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: na
Free-Throw Percentage: 70.3 (122, 6)
Rebound Margin: 3.3 (71, 6)
Assists Per Game: 12.0 (240, 15)
Turnovers Per Game: 13.7 (190, 13)
Last Five Postseason Appearances:
South Florida 2010 NIT First Round loss to North Carolina State
South Florida 2002 NIT Opening round loss to Ball State
South Florida 2000 NIT First round loss to New Mexico
South Florida 1995 NIT First Round win over St. Johns
South Florida 1995 NIT Second round win over Coppin State
South Florida 1995 NIT Quarterfinal loss to Marquette
South Florida 1992 NCAA Round of 64 loss to Georgetown
*all team stats through 3/4
See All Men’s Basketball Postseason Capsules
