The State of Bulls Basketball

[USFCollin]

Hey Bulls fans, we're pretty good.  A little analysis so far from a hoops junkie.

Men's Basketball:  3-0.  Avg. margin of victory:  19.3.

Stud Freshman:  Solomon Bozeman, great handle, can shoot, great upside

Melvin Buckley, reigning Big East Player of the Week

They can handle, they can shoot, and they play extremely hard every posession.  The defensive effort of this team, particularly in the half court, has been tremendous.  Melvin Buckley has take his scoring to another level, and is becoming more of a leader each night.  Amu Saaka is going to be very good, and Chris Capko is really benefitting from having other back court players who can handle.  McHugh Mattis is one of the most exciting players in the Big East, if not the nation, and is flying to both rims at every opportunity and putting up monster stats.  Melvyn Richardson has shown great improvement.  And 60% of the projected conference schedule starting lineup is still wearing street clothes (Gransberry, Verdejo, Howard), and watching Solomon Bozeman emerge as a player who seems to have all the skills at both guard positions.  Watch this team once, and you'll love the way they play the game.  At full strength, this team could really surprise some people.  

Women's Basketball:  4-0.  Avg.. margin of victory:  37.5

Stud Freshman:  Stephanie Sarosi, 6-5, great hands and feet, 3 point range, tremendous upside

Shantia Grace, reigning Big East Player of the Week

They go 10 deep, and never, ever stop pressing for 40 minutes.  They fly to the ball on every possession, jump every passing lane, and force so many turnovers it often takes opponents 2 or 3 attempts to get it over the mid-court stripe.  Rachael Sheats might be the best on-ball defender in women's basketball, and Shantia Grace can be a distributor when needed, or turn on the scoring at any time as well.  Porche Grant is a grit and grinder who loves to rebound, and they have a bunch of three point threats in Mitrik, Jackson, Webb and Packer.  Oh yeah, they also have the lady who might be the best pure scorer in the nation in Jessica Dickson.  When she's on, she's just spectacular.

I've been to all seven games at the Dome so far this year, and I've loved what I've seen in every one of them.  I figured the women's team would be a Top 25 type club, but I'm just stunned at how good this men's team is.  I had no idea they would be able to look this good this soon.  And there's still a lot of talent wearing shirts and ties just waiting to wear a uniform.  And as a hoops junkie and dual season ticket holder... I freaking love it!!  January and Big East play can't get here soon enough!!

[Velcro]

I can't wait to see how both teams do as the competition heats up!

[Matt]

mattis has been the brightest point for me this season.

and buckley's shooting.

i hope richardson can continue to work on the offensive end.  his defense is pretty bad.

bozeman should be our starting PG.  he out plays Capko every night out.  cant wait to see bozeman and howard on the floor at the same time.

thing should get interesting when we are at full strength

[Velcro]

mattis has been the brightest point for me this season.

and buckley's shooting.

i hope richardson can continue to work on the offensive end.  his defense is pretty bad.

bozeman should be our starting PG.  he out plays Capko every night out.  cant wait to see bozeman and howard on the floor at the same time.

thing should get interesting when we are at full strength

I think both should bet even time.  When both have been on the floor at the same time, it has actually worked well.  Both have tremendous poise out there and both can score... yes, even capko now.  I still want Howard in there because he's even better than the those two, but I'm happy with our guard play.  We had 12 turnovers last night.  Last year we averaged 19ish for the season?  that is a very important improvement.

[CoolBull1]

I feel better about our Men's team than I have in 5 or 6 years, at least.  I think it's going to be an exciting year.

Good comment, Collin, concerning Rachel Sheets.  She is one to watch....anticipates very well; quite a defender.  Both of these teams should make a lot of noise in the Big East this year....I'm not saying we'll be top 5 in the BE on the Men's side, but I agree with whoever said that you can go ahead and book tix for a flight to the BE tournament.  This is a completely different team.  If we just had Solomon Jones to round it out!

[flsportsfan83]

btw I have been impressed with the basketball team, that being said I want to see what we can do vs a good basketball team.

[Guest BasketBull.]

3 things that I like so far:

1) Team chemistry and bonding: the guys play as team and they really support each other during the timeouts. That's very important for the tough road games and the long season ahead.

2) An upgrade in talent: we lost SoJo to the NBA but the talent is much better this year.

3) Bodies: you've got to rotate guys and last year we had almost no chance for that.

[smazza]

conference play is all that matters

the rest is window dressing

[Paisa el Toro]

btw I have been impressed with the basketball team, that being said I want to see what we can do vs a good basketball team.

I agree. Let's see how USF handles the Richmond Spiders. I believe Richmond is consistently one of the top Atlantic 10 programs. I can't wait to see Verdejo and Gransberry in action.

[Bull Matrix]

To be honest, the reason that I am impressed with this team is because we played tough against the BIG EAST last season. Maybe the Big East was laying down??? I doubt it because some of those teams almost lost to USF last season. Georgetown was the only team that didnt get lucky against USF last year. It seems like our team played much better as the year went on at times, so I really hope that continues with this year's squad. I know not having Jones is going to hurt in BIG EAST play, but you just never know how Gransberry will do until he steps on the court against the BIG EAST.