Bull94

It wasn't on rivals. Unless they consider a 2 star and a 3 star recruit, that are not in the top 150, to be a top 25 class. Maybe you found yourself on the V Tech message board again. They get all warm and fuzzy over Seth too. You people are bilnded by your Seth loyalty. He has recruited 1 player to V Tech that was rated in the top 150 since he has been there. He was a local freshman point guard that left the team in his first year. Get over it. Now if it takes 3-4 years for Seth or Leavitt to develop players, how come you're not willing to give OUR coach the same amount of time?

If he had a top 30 class why doesn't he have a top 30 team? Sounds like he is underperforming as a coach again. It seems as though he has no top 150 recruits coming in. In fact the only guy he has signed that is ranked is a freshman point guard that has left the team. Can you say head-case? How can you have a top 30 class when you don't have anyone ever ranked in the top 150 recruits?? Where do you get info? http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?Sport=2&Year=2005&School=92

I believe the BE helped build the Miami and Virginia Tech programs from near extinction to national powers. It wasn't considered a power conference then either. In fact I would say our situation is very similar to Miami's. Miami made a huge mistake leaving. They had a walk thru schedule to a BCS game. I would rather be the Big Dog in a weak BCS conference than a similarly talented team that is middle of the road in the top conference. Think Texas. If they played in the BE they would play in a BCS game every year. As it is they never get the chance behind OU. Miami now has to split BCS bids with FSU, Va Tech and many others.

bulldad, make sure you give us a report.

I can't believe we scored 80 against one of the best defensive teams in the country. I think I heard them say we have been over 80 5 or 6 times this year? If the role players continue playing like they have, I think we can go toe to toe with alot of teams.

Diarra had that one last night. I about flipped. If you're going to foul a guy going to the basket, make it count.

What's sad but true is that we have always had a mediocre program. I don't recall ever being a top notch program before our current coach. In fact we haven't beaten Cincy in 16 years, we've never been past the 2nd round in CUSA tourney, and haven't beaten  a top 20 team for over a decade until this week. What's sad  but true is that you don't see this as progress. Whats' sad but true is that you call yourself a FAN.

TJ's a Memphis State grad. I know he has said in the past that now he considers himself a Bull. It might be interesting to listen to him while watching.

Beastie, This shows CRM can get his team to peak at the right time. We haven't seen that in awhile. When was the last time we had big wins let alone big wins in March? We don't have the depth to do it all season long yet. When Swifty was sick we had nobody to come in and relieve him. Same thing when we were in foul trouble.  You may say CRM ran everyone off but in reality they quit on the team. They weren't willing to do what it takes. Not much good would have come from having a bunch of quitters on this team and CRM realizes that. These guys are buying into his coaching philosophies and it shows. When the going gets tough.... And by the way, I know you're a pesimist and all but WE STILL ARE LOOKING AT THE NCAA"S !!!

Does anybody notice we don't have any quitters left on this team? They all quit already. Good riddance. Great job CRM. He cleaned house and all we have left are guys that buy into his system. That is what coaching is all about. Getting these guys to believe.

nice post BB2k. Anybody know CD's condition for tonights game? He looked pretty hobbled in the few minutes he played last night. I hope he can go. We could really use him. Our role players have been playing great the last 2 games. Hope this continues.

Cyber, You have to give CRM time to build momentum in his recruiting efforts. It takes time to rebuild. Alot of these kids are being recruited from the time they hit high school. You can't expect any new coach to come into a program in the shape ours is in and say I want top 150's only. He's already beaten a top 20 team and gotten us past the first round of CUSA. These kids will start to notice if we keep this up. He seems to be a great motivator and has this overachieving team peaking at the right time. I remeber BB and Altron disappearing for the big games. Seth wasn't able to get these guys to play when he needed them to. Our team would disappear late in the season. It's nice to know that basketball is actually played in March.

Man, you detractors will not give the coach any credit. Did you see the setup on the final inbounds play for Houston? Did you hear the announcer talk about what a great strategic setup it was and then Houston turned it over. He sounded more like a Bulls fan and CRM fan than some on this board. You must at least admit that he has the team peaking at the right time. It's nice to see us play ball at the end of the year. We used to be able to stop watching before Feb and not miss a thing.

excellent. I remember when we were on regularly. unfortunately ESPN feels a need to kill all local markets so they can monopolize the eyeballs for their game of the day.

beastie, Why was our winning percentage higher in basketball then in football? Look at year over year numbers.Record wise(which is I believe all that matters), It's obvious that basketball has improved while football actually regressed. If we had BE caliber recruits in football and not in basketball,how come the results weren't there? I don't know if you watched either team play but it was more painful watching football this year. We have a huge recruiting advantage in football over basketball regardless of conference. We play in a football state( I believe there was an article posted about how much bball talent comes out of this area while we are sitting on a goldmine of football talent). We play in one of the nicest pro stadiums in the country. No comparison. I believe we are headed in the right direction for both programs.

I think that is a chicken and egg arguement. Does recruiting well produce winners or does winning attract good recruits? I am more concerned with how we develop our talent than I am with where they rank on the Rivals recruiting list. I hate to tell you but Rivals rankings aren't the end all concerning talent evaluation. There are a million examples of lower ranked recruits developing into better talent than guys who were ranked higher than them. I think that is why they actually play the games rather than present the Nat Champ to whoever had the highest Rivals  ranking. Now looking at the top 150 list, do you think there is any coach out there we could hire for what we pay CRM and somehow expect him to get these types of recruits? After all we aren't a perrenial winner,yet.

Don't you think we should be more concerned with the results on the floor? I could care less if we have the 200th ranked recruiting class as long as we win on the court. I think he showed progress this year. Everyone needs to give him credit for that. Until we show signs of regressing he should be our coach.

Wow talk about expectations!! I can't wait until our prgram is at the level where we can consider firing the head coach because we haven't played for a Nat Champ in the last 2 years. They made a huge mistake moving to the ACC. It used to be guaranteed they would go undefeated in conference play. Not so any more. We'll be the new Beasts of the Big East. Which coaches are on the hottest seats? 7. Larry Coker, Miami (FL): Miami has gone two years without playing for a national championship and lost the ACC title last season at home. Coker won't be fired, but many Hurricane fans are starting to grumble.

dabull 80, Can't argue those credentials. UNCC has a pretty good history. I believe this will be their 10th NCAA tourney appearance so things were in place before Lutz got there. I think we should expect our program to grow to the same level as either UNCC or UAB in the long run. In fact if things had been run properly in the past there would be no reason not to be there today. I believe I heard on the radio on my way to the game that we lead the all time series with UNCC 27(now 28) - 25. Our longest running series. It's a shame that it will be ending. Lutz is a UNCC grad and says that it is his dream job. Might be tough to hire away someone from their dream job. UNCC to USF would have been considered a lateral move at best before the BE invite. Now if we commit to rebuilding our basketball program (facilities, fan base, salaries, etc) there is no reason why we couldn't hire away more established coaching talent. I like the momentum that CRM is building though. I think the character that he is bringing to the program can only be positive. Our players wanted the win more than they did. Simple as that. It was great to see them play their hearts out.

Not to take anything away from VTech but the ACC is way overrated this year. Top 3 teams  good. Everyone else average at best actually. I wish the "expert" TV analysts would give up trying to sell the ACC as the best conference both in football and basketball. Maryland wasn't .500 in conference and was barely .500 overall. They shouldn't make the tourney.

I totally agree with Howie, Bulliever, Bien, etc.  I feel like alot of people on here tear down USF athletics. I think the media's focus is negative no matter the subject. That is to be expected but we are FANS. We're all USF supporters so we shoudl act like it and support our programs. Compare our tiny problems to those of UF, FSU, or any other major BCS program. Not even close. Look what Colorado is going through. How about Crowder from UF last year? They suspend him for one game for his involvement in a very serious fight. What did they do with the other UF player? Can you say they favored Crowder because he was a "star"? They wouldn't even make it a game that counts. It was against a 1aa team. (most overrated linebacker last year- couldn't stop the run to save his life) I think both Leavitt and McCullum are getting a reputation for being team first guys. No one is above the team. Leavitt sends a message to his team that nobody is above reproach and some how he is not a disciplinarian. If anything I would say the opposite.

He did end up running for them because he said he found the right shoes?!?!  I don't think he worked out or did any drills though. Not sure. Here is another earlier article. It says that March 10 is his own personal pro day. Instead, he has slid to the fringe of the top 10. Now, with his decision to skip workouts until his own personal pro day on March 10 in Tampa, Williams may have fallen out of that group. http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=cr-combinenotes022505&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I think that is the Mike Williams pro day. Not sure if any Bulls will be working out. Hope so though. Williams has declined to both lift and run in Indianapolis, choosing to go through his critical workout paces in the more familiar setting of the University of South Florida in Tampa, his hometown. if he turns in an impressive 40-yard dash time on his March 10 pro day workout in Tampa. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/don_banks/02/26/williams/index.html

I don't get that. The browns had one of the best pass Ds in the NFL. 5th in yards and 5th in TDs.

First of all, I never said "we can't attract top talent" only that I believe given the current circumstances we shouldn't expect to attract top talent. A remodel of the sundome, a few years to build momentum, and better fan support should help in recruiting. It is a fact that we have virtually no HOOPS tradition. I think you'll find it hard to argue that. I'm not sure if I said that Florida was not a basketball state but I think you'll find that the Florida schools put a greater emphasis on their football programs. How many National titles has the state won in basketball? How many in football? It is apples and oranges. Men's recruiting is much more competitive. I don't see Alabama boosters(or half of the SEC among others) paying high school coaches $150k to direct their top women's players to their schools. According to your logic, we should give CJF the head coaching job for the men's team. He is such a great recruiter that we should expect him to bring in top 35  classes every year for the men's program too.