South Florida Bulls Stats at Insiders Betting Digest

Bulls

South Florida Bulls

NCAAB – AMERICAN

Arena: Yuengling Center
Coach: Brian Gregory, Murry Bartow

TEAM LEADERS

South Florida Bulls

South Florida Team Summary

The South Florida Bulls men’s basketball team has gotten off to a tough start to the season as they are 6-11 on the season thus far. They have really struggled in conference play this year as well as they sit in ninth place in the American. South Florida is 1-4 on the year in conference play and has lost five of their last six games.

Caleb Murphy leads the team in scoring with 11.9 points per game and also leads the team in assists at 3.5 per game. Russel Tchewa leads the team in rebounds per game as he grabs 5.3 per contest this season. Javon Greene leads the team in steals with 1.9 per game.

South Florida only scores 58.6 points per contest which is 439th in the country. They dish off 10.9 assists per game and haul down 36.2 rebounds per contest as well. South Florida has really struggled to get anything going on the offensive end of the floor this season

South Florida Bulls Standings

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South Florida Team History

Athletic Director Dick Bowers and President John S. Allen permitted a freshman-only team to test the viability of adding men’s basketball to the University of South Florida before it became an official sport. They competed against freshmen teams from other state institutions as well as junior colleges. The squad was a huge success, winning their first game against the University of Florida on December 4, 1970.

The 1970-71 squad had a 19-4 record, and their popularity led to the varsity team’s acceptance. The 1970 USF basketball squad is not featured in the team media guide, and the formal establishment of USF basketball is reported as 1971, however, this team was instrumental in the formation of the team that exists today.

The Golden Brahmans, the official basketball team of the University of South Florida, made their debut on December 1, 1971, with a 74-73 victory over Stetson University.

The Brahmans competed in the NCAA College Division for the first time this season. The team’s first home game was a 98-77 loss to Florida at Curtis Hixon Hall in downtown Tampa, which would serve as the team’s principal arena before the building of the on-campus Sun Dome for the 1980–81 season, and was the only stadium USF utilized every season through 1980.

South Florida’s first home win would come against Baldwin Wallace on December 18. In just their tenth game, the Brahmans scored 100 points for the first time, defeating Florida A&M 103-102. For the 1971-72 season, USF only played one game at their alternate home, the Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory in West Tampa, when they defeated Missouri-St. Louis 85–82. The Golden Brahmans finished their first season with an 8–17 record, but the next year they went 14–11 for their first winning season. USF moved to NCAA Division I for the 1973–74 season, and they have remained there ever since.

South Florida 2022 Key Stats

South Florida is ranked 439th in the country with 58.6 points per game. They average 10.9 assists per game while also grabbing 36.2 rebounds per game. They are one of the worst offensive teams in the country and that has shown in their struggles this season.

Caleb Murphy leads the squad in scoring, averaging 11.9 points per game, and assists, at 3.5 per game. This season, Russel Tchewa leads the squad in rebounds per game with 5.3 per game. With 1.9 steals per game, Javon Greene leads South Florida in that category.

South Florida Championships Won by the Team

South Florida does not have a large pedigree of championships as they have only been around for just over 50 years. South Florida won a conference tournament in 1990 and won their conference division in 2000. Other than that, South Florida does not have any other championships besides a CBI Tournament title in the 2018-19 season. The Bulls have only appeared in the NCAA tournament three times in their history.

South Florida Important Team Events

South Florida does not have any huge rivalries and does not have a huge base of traditions either. The biggest basketball-related thing that the Bulls do is when they are shooting free throws they hold up their fists and yell “Go Bulls”. This fist has made its way across the athletics at the school and now the student section at all events has some form of the closed fist and “Go Bulls” chant that started at the basketball games.

South Florida Top Players

South Florida has retired three jerseys in program history but none have been within the last 25 years. Chucky Atkins, Charlie Bradley, and Radenko Dobra all have had their jerseys retired. South Florida has seen six former players play in the NBA but no one of much note over the past few years.

South Florida Top Coaches

One of the top coaches in South Florida history was Bobby Paschal. Paschal coached for 10 years from 1986 to 1996. The Bulls’ first three seasons under Paschal were abysmal, with a total record of 21–63 and at least 20 defeats in each of those seasons. Before the 1989–90 season, many Bulls supporters demanded that Paschal be fired. The Bulls, on the other hand, turned things around, becoming one of just two teams in NCAA men’s basketball history to go from 20 defeats to 20 victories in the same season.

USF qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time, winning the Sun Belt Tournament and earning an auto bid to the Big Dance behind future USF Athletic Hall of Fame entrant Radenko Dobra’s Sun Belt Tournament MVP performance. USF’s fairytale season came to an end with a hard-fought 79–67 loss against Arizona, the second seed. The next season, South Florida came close to breaking the 20-win barrier again, winning 19 games and earning their fourth NIT invitation in 11 years.

The Bulls moved from the Sun Belt to the Metro Conference in 1991–92, winning 19 games for the second year in a row and earning an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. This is the only time in program history that the Bulls have advanced to the playoff tournament three years in a row.

The current head coach is Brian Gregory and he has been at the helm for five years. Gregory’s first season saw USF finish 10–22, the first time the school has won ten games since the 2014–15 season, the Antigua era’s first.

The Bulls finished last in the AAC with a 3–15 record and were eliminated in the first round of the conference tournament in 2018. For the 2018–19 season, Gregory welcomed nine new players to the program. Gardner–Webb transfer Laquincy Rideau, who had a redshirt season in 2017-18, and Alexis Yetna’s arrival to the hardwood also helped USF. It started the season with a 10-2 non-conference record before finishing 8–10 in the AAC.

For their accomplishments throughout the regular season, Rideau was awarded the AAC Defensive Player of the Year, while Yetna was selected the league’s Freshman of the Year.

Despite being knocked out of the conference tournament in the first round yet again, this time against UConn, USF was awarded a bid to the College Basketball Invitational, a third-tier postseason college basketball tournament.

The Bulls fought back from a 25-point hole to upset Stony Brook in the first round before going on to win the CBI finals against Utah Valley and Loyola Marymount. The Bulls won two out of three games against DePaul to win the tournament. David Collins, a sophomore guard, was voted the tournament’s MVP. In the process, USF improved from 24-14 to 24-14, the most among NCAA Division I schools.

Before the 2019-20 season, three Bulls – Rideau, Collins, and Yetna – were chosen preseason all-conference picks. Yetna, who had fought a leg ailment and rehabbed during the summer, was ruled out for the season after suffering a severe knee injury in practice before the team’s season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Mayan Kiir, a former LSU transfer, also quit the team, reducing the Bulls’ size from one of the largest in the AAC to one of the lowest.

As a result, the Bulls struggled on offense, scoring less than 70 points in 24 of their 31 games. USF, on the other hand, was particularly good on defense, ranking 20th in the NCAA in scoring defense and limiting 27 of its 31 opponents to less than their season scoring average at the time of play.