USF Men's BasketBall: Lots of questions

[Guest BasketBull.]

I'm really worried...

(1) I know the coaching change was necessary, and I think that aspect worked out well for how things went down. (a) Seth needed to move on (we wanted him to go and he wanted to leave) and ( we needed the best coach we could find/afford.

(2) The changeover was bad for USF basketball; USF basketball took 2 steps backwards.

Coach Mac did a housecleaning. Fine. But that would have been OK had we remained in C-USA. Switching to the Big East puts USF 2 steps behind... USF basketball not only needs to get back to the level where it was (.500 in C-USA), but now faces the brutal Big East.

Last year the program fell down to the bottom of C-USA. This year it seems we are on par with the likes of Stephen F. Austin ---We're still not back to .500 level in C-USA.

(3) Recruiting and next year: In all honesty, we are not ready for the Big East. Almost every team that we will face next year is bringing in very high-grade talent... I'm not knocking on our current signed players, but you get my drift. Leather and Swift, etc., remain our best players out of all of our signed recruits and current players -yes, I know they are graduating. (Translation: We have not upgraded to Big East Talent.)

We're in trouble, Bulls... I don't know how long, but USF men's basketball is probably going to see its best year this year in terms of wins and losses for a long time to come.

[Velcro]

I disagree on #2 and #3... #1 is correct.

#2 ... it wasn't bad for USF... if you say #1 was necessary, then you can't say #2, that it is bad for USF... it is good... sometimes you have to take a couple backwards to move forward... and i feel this is the case here.

#3...  Zaronn Cann is hardly low-grade talent.  We are in better shape that you are giving credit for, but of course it needs to get better.

We are not in trouble... we may have a couple of tough years starting out in the big east, but it is expected and it is only short term.

[Bull Matrix]

Hey Basketbull,

If the women can turn it around in hoops then there is no reason why the mens program cant turn things around. Right now, I am not happy with the defense, but I am liking the offense alot better with our new players. I just think that we will see our team play better defense later on in the season. I think our new coach is an improvement over our last coach. Sorry, Seth fans.

And on the bright side. If things dont work out with Coach McCullum, then you can bet that USF will find a name coach to replace him. Either way, I believe our new AD wont settle for being a bad basketball program. Doug Woolard seems like he is more into the basketball side of things IMO.

[Velcro]

I agree, defense will improve... that is Mac's calling card... they were sloppy and fouled too much... that type of thing will improve.  You know Mac will get his players to learn from their defensive mistakes from this game.

[The_Reaper]

Geez guys! C'mon. First game. First game. First game. Improvements are only upward. I think this team will surprise you all this year. In order to fine tune a well oiled machine, you have to have a few test runs before you race her.

[Velcro]

I agree... Basketbull was the only one out of all 3 of us saying anything negative.  A good coach will work out the bumps from the first game.  We all know we aren't going to be world beaters this year, but we could be world breakers (spoilers) later on in the year.

[Cubanbull]

It was the first game against an opponent thats not a pushover. USF will get better as the year progresses as they did last year.

Comparison:

Miami 67 Wofford 64

[USFPhil]

I am not happy with the game either but in the bulls defense SFA didnt miss last night and we were guarding them.

[smazza]

i am happy with a win

game should have been on friday and not compete with football

schedule times always change so original times are not reliable

[GarySJ]

Re #2: "Coach Mac did a housecleaning." You know, I don't recall anyone being kicked off the team. Everyone who left, left of their own volition.