College Hoops: Is South Florida For Real?

South Florida is one of the hottest teams in Men’s Basketball right now. After hearing this statement many people would ask questions like: Is this person crazy? Who is South Florida? Does he know anything about college basketball?

The question I ask are the South Florida Bulls Men’s Basketball team for real? Let’s take a look at what South Florida has done so far this season.

South Florida (15-7, 5-5 Big East) has been a surprise team as of late in Big East play. They are on a current four game winning streak and have pulled two upsets in a row over #21 Pitt in South Florida and #8 Georgetown on its home court.

After beating #21 Pitt, 70-61 to score their first upset this week, the Bulls then traveled to #8 Georgetown. South Florida was down 35-26 at the half, but spurred a second half come back to outscore the Hoyas 46-29 in the second half and secure their biggest win in school history with a 72-64 victory over the Hoyas. There was another first for the Bulls in this game. Never in the history of their program had they won two Big East games in a row.

Dominique Jones who averages a little over 22 ppg, is averaging 35 ppg during the Bull’s four game winning streak, and had 29 in the win over Georgetown with 22 of them coming in the second half.  Jones also scored 46 points in a South Florida 109-105 Overtime win over Providence on January 23^rd.

South Florida currently sits in 8^th place in the Big East standings behind five teams that are ranked in the Top 25. They have some tough games coming up when they travel to Notre Dame and Marquette then play at home against Cincinnati.

So the answer to if South Florida is for real, only time will tell but right now as one of the hottest teams in college basketball it’s hard to say that they are not. I could see them making it to the NCAA Tournament if they can win a few more big games in Big East play, and then do something in the Big East Tournament. As of right now they are probably a bubble team.

So my answer to the big question is: YES, South Florida is for real.