USF Bulls Bubble Bursts with Loss To St. Johns, NIT Seems Likely

The South Florida Bulls (16-10) has had a banner year for its standards.  But now it appears the Bulls are NIT bound after their loss to St. Johns, 74-58.  This loss is not only one of the worst losses of the season, but it’s also at home in front of the 5,800 disappointed fans.

The Bulls had overcome transfers, injuries, suspensions, and even an NCAA probe this season.  Despite all the distractions, they’ve post wins over Pittsburgh and Georgetown, and their first four-game win streak in Big East play.

The Bulls won back-to-back road games this season in conference play for the first time ever. This was coming after going 2-41 on the road to date in the Big East.

Dominique Jones was names Big East player of the week and became an All-American and Big East Player of the Year candidate.

Augustus Gilchrist started off strong, averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds a game, before going down with ankle injury for six weeks.  Since his return, conditioning and rust have plagued his production.

Jarrid Famous has stepped up in the wake of Gilchrist injury to average 11 points and seven rebounds on the season.  He, along with Chris Howard’s 10 points a game, have provided offensive production outside of Dominique Jones.

From here on out the Bulls will play the role of spoiler, USF still has Villanova and Connecticut on the schedule.  The Bulls have an outside chance at 20 wins on the season depending on how the remaining schedule and Big East tournament goes for the Bulls.

Villanova and Connecticut will pose to be difficult tasks for the Bulls, but DePaul and Providence should be wins for USF, giving them a record of 18-12 going into the Big East Tournament.

The Bulls has won several huge games for the program this season. They’ve also lost some games where sloppy play and lack of concentration plagued them. The program is going in the right direction, but it’s still not quite there.