JSF and others.  Please post scouting reports here.  Thanks.

They play really slow. 3rd slowest in the country. 

They are really tall. Starters go 6-1, 6-6, 6-7, 6-8, 6-10.

They play really good defense. 14th in the country in opponent fg%

Offensively a work in progress: They turn the ball over a ton, and can't shoot very well form the outside. 

I'm near Tampa right now, surrounded by USF fans, newspapers etc.Sports radio here has a healthy respect for the Bobcats, but fans are oblivious, they are goin to the final four!!

Not trying malign your fanbase! Just teasin ya,,!! Good luck to your team! My family has several USF grads,, and we are having a blast with this unlikely match up!

Just got off work. Breakdowns forthcoming.

I'm no analyst but I was looking at USFs record and found this interesting-

6 of USF's 13 losses were by double digits and 4 of those 6 were by more than 20 points. Granted most of these were against good teams, but being in the Big East USF should have the means to compete with good teams. Is there anything about their style of play that makes them susceptible to big losses and if so how do we take advantage of that?


Deficit   RPI   Opponent

-2pts    20     @Southern Miss
-2pts    103    Old Dominion
-3pts    32     UConn
-4pts    39     Notre Dame
-4pts    161    Penn State
-6pts    57     West Virginia
-8pts    1      @Syracuse

-11pts   39     @Notre Dame
-12pts   145    @Auburn

-20pts   9      @Marquette
-23pts   38     @Virginia Commonwealth
-28pts   6      @Kansas
-30pts   15     @Georgetown



RPI
USF- 52
OU-  47

SOS
USF-  27
OU-  165


Record vs 1-50
USF- 2-9 
OU-  1-1

Record vs 51-100
USF- 4-1 
OU-  6-2

Record vs 101-200
USF- 9-3
OU-  5-2

Record vs 201 +
USF- 4-0 
OU- 14-2 

Bulls fan here...

I would like to say that 2 of those big losses were early in the season before Collins had really taken over and settled in at the point. He missed games early on and as a frosh, wasn't running things the way he is now.

Not to say we would have won those games (VCU, Kansas), but, I think at that point, we were still searching for an identity as well. Heath hadn't made the call to be as slow paced and defense minded as we are yet. Probably playing solid defense for the most part, but, not the true recognized key to success for us yet. I think when it became obvious that we couldn't win a shootout with those types of teams, our focus switched.

From what I have seen, if your shooters get hot, you'll do well. We contest pretty much everything, but, there are times when the shooter is just on and it doesn't matter if the shot is contested or not, it just falls. ND was hitting those shots in the BE tourney. We still should have won if not for a missed layup at the end of regulation, but, they stayed in the game because they were drilling some tough shots.

If you build up a big lead, we very likely can't come back. That can certainly lead to big losses for us. If we get down big, go into an 0-for-22 slump, and speed up our game... it can get ugly quick.

But, even as bad as we shot in the first half last night, the defense shows up every game and if you're not hitting the contested shots, we'll hang in there and may just get hot shooting ourselves.

Good win over Michigan. I was pulling for you all the way. Of all the upsets, that one didn't really hurt my bracket since I had us going on in this one anyway, but, I didn't care anyway. I love to see the underdog taking down someone they weren't given a chance against. Looking forward to a good game tomorrow.

Preview story posted on homepage.

Basically, South Florida is a slow-paced (second-slowest in nation) defensive-oriented team with size. They force teams to shoot very low percentages and dont' foul a lot but don't force a lot of turnovers. They rebound very well. However, they are prone to turnovers, don't draw many fouls and aren't especially efficient on offense.

STARTERS:
F 6-10 Augustus Gilchrist, 9.6 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.3 bpg. Has shot just 38.8 percent. Shoots an occassional 3 but not at a high percentage (30 percent).

6-8 Ron Anderson, 7.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg. Has shot 54.8 percetn from the field but below 50 percent on free throws.

6-7 Victor Rudd, 8.7 rpg, 4.6 rpg. Has shot only 36 percent on the year with about half of his shots 3s (29.5 percent).

6-6 Hugh Robertson, 6.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg. Has shot 52.4 percent, but not really a 3-point shooter. Just six makes on the year.

6-1 Anthony Collins, 8.5 ppg, 5.3 apg. 50 percent shooting on the year, but only seven made 3s.

OFF THE BENCH:
6-8 Toralyn Fitzpatrick, 8.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 44.5 percent shooting, top 3-point shooter at 41.1 percent.

6-4 Shaun Noriega, 3.6 ppg, 37.0 percent on 3s, which has accounted for almost all of his attempts.

6-4 Jawanza Poland, 8.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, about half of his shots are 3s but has made just 26.5 percent of them.