USF bball --two coaches ago

[Guest BasketBull.]

South Florida is in a League Below the Rest of its Rivals

JOHN HARRIS. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Jan 29, 1987.

The University of South Florida is going nowhere in the Sun Belt Conference - and that is stating the case mildly. The Bulls (2-5 and 5-11 overall) normally can count only on junior guard Arthur Caldwell and senior forward Doug Wallace for consistent efforts. Sometimes, even Wallace lacks his usual zip.

This is no reflection on first-year coach Bobby Paschal, but USF is without a legitimate collection of Division I talent.

Paschal was left short-handed by coach Lee Rose and staff. If there was a weakness associated with Rose - who guided North Carolina-Charlotte and Purdue to Final Four appearances - it was the inability to recruit outstanding players.

Former Bulls Charlie Bradley, 7-footer Jim Grandholm and Tom Tonelli, along with Caldwell and Wallace, would be on a desired-players list, but the talent dwindles considerably from there.

Two former USF players now starring at Division II programs bring this void into focus. Joel Canfall and Carlton Phoenix, originally signed by the Bulls, have found happiness away from the Sun Dome.

Canfall is a senior at Eckerd College and the Tritons' leading scorer and rebounder. Three years ago he was a freshman at USF and was being touted by Rose as a talented shooting guard with much promise.

The promise never materialized for the 6-3 Canfall, a native of St. Petersburg. Dismayed by a lack of playing time, he transferred to St. Petersburg Junior College and then to Eckerd last season.

Phoenix, a 6-6 forward from West Palm Beach, came to USF lacking a quality jump shot and with barely adequate ballhandling skills. He departed for Miami-Dade Community College North last season. Now a junior, he starts for Florida International in Miami, averaging 12.8 points and 11.2 rebounds.

Clearly, Canfall and Phoenix found their comfort zone at the Division II level.

Face it. Not even North Carolina's Dean Smith could win at the Division I level with a roster of Division II players.

Bulls expect to make progress in small steps Series: 1987-88 COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEW

RICK STROUD. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Nov 20, 1987.

TAMPA - Bobby Paschal was a late arrival at the University of South Florida last fall and, consequently, didn't have a lot of time to recruit before the early November signing date.

Many of the state's top players signed early - and not with USF - so Paschal and his staff did the next-best thing. They recruited the next-best group of kids, especially around Florida, and grabbed as many good ones as they could.

They grabbed a lot. Seven to be exact. And Paschal is pleased with his first group of USF recruits.

[...]

Of Paschal's seven recruits, six are from Florida. That pleases him greatly because Florida is where they want to emphasize their recruiting...

[...]

``None of our seven guys are what you would call superstars, but they are all solid players,`` he said.

``We've definitely improved our overall quickness and our shooting. These are good players, and some will play right away. Some might even start, but who knows? That's still a long way off.``

The two most decorated players that Paschal signed were Steve Williams, a 6-4 forward from Hallandale, and Bobby Russell, a 6-4 forward from Fort Lauderdale Nova who was a middle school teammate of Williams.

Russell was a preseason all-America, but had ligament damage in his knee this year and played parts of only four games in pain. But he had a great junior year (26 points, 14 rebounds per game) and has unlimited potential as a player.

He could be one of USF's best recruits ever, if he's healthy. Right now, there's no way of knowing whether he'll be ready to play by October.

``He's rehabilitating it now and we have no answers to whether or not he'll be ready,`` Paschal said. ``Signing him was total speculation on our part, because of his knee, but it's a chance worth taking. He's got great range as a shooter and can flat-out play. We're confident that he'll be 100 percent again.``

Williams is the all-time leading scorer in Broward County, a Charles Barkley type inside who always finds a way to score, even if he is only 6-5.

``Some people are like that. They find a way to score inside, regardless of how big the other guy is,`` Paschal said. ``Down low, it's hard to stop. Some people wonder what position he can play in college, but I don't really care. All I know is that I'd rather have him playing for me than against me.``

Both Michael Newton of Titusville, the only November signee, and Chris Risey of New Orleans Rummel come to USF with sound basketball skills and good shooting touches for big men, Paschal said. Both are 6-7 1/2 and Risey, Paschal said, is still growing. He could turn out to be 6-9 or better.

Paschal also likes the two guards he signed. Haines City's Tony Armstrong, a Team Florida selection, and Pensacola Escambia's Maurice Webster, are both lightning-quick guards with scoring ability. They fit Paschal's style of up-tempo basketball perfectly.

The easiest recruit to sign might have been Gary Alexander, a late-blooming 6-7 forward from Jacksonville Raines, a cousin of USF starter Darrell Coleman. Paschal speaks glowingly of Alexander, a super-quick inside player with long arms, quick feet and instinctive shot-blocking ability.

There's a little bit of everything in USF's grab bag. Point guards, shooters, forwards big and small. All that's missing is a center, a void that could have been filled with the signing of Countryside's Matt Geiger, who chose Auburn instead.

``We have a lot of seniors this year, so we can really concentrate on big men next year,`` Paschal said. ``But everybody wants big men. There's only two or three real good ones in Florida each year, so their hard to come by. Look around, though. I've seen a lot of teams win national titles without a dominant center.

``Seven-footers aren't essential. But they sure are nice.``

But those are worries for down the road. For the present, this recruiting class looks pretty good. The emphasis is on potential, of course, but at least it's a start in the right direction and they should help enough for the Bulls to do better than 8-20, as they were in 1986-87. That's all USF supporters can ask for right now. University of South Florida 1987-88 basketball recruits Michael Newton 6-7, Titusville

Paschal says: ``He had a good senior year after we signed him. He's a good shooter and he's got good basketball skills. He's very smart on the court.`` Gary Alexander 6-7, Jacksonville Raines

Paschal says: ``Gary's a guy that has excellent potential. He's quick, has long arms and is a great shot blocker. And if he has the character of his cousin (USF senior Darrell Coleman), then we're going to have a hard-working, excellent player on our hands.`` Maurice Webster 6-1, Pensacola Escambia

Paschal says: ``He is very quick and has been a true point guard in high school. When you consider that Arthur Caldwell played 39 minutes a game for a us last year at the point, I'd think Maurice can help us right away.`` Steve Williams 6-4, Hallandale

Paschal says: ``There's so many things I like about him. He can score inside, enough to be Broward County's all-time scorer, and he's a smart player. He's been on a tremendous high school team and he's a winning type of kid.`` Chris Risey 6-7, New Orleans Rummel

Paschal says: ``Chris has got plenty of size and he's a good shooter. He's still growing too and could turn out to be a real fine player.`` Bobby Russell 6-4, Fort Lauderdale Nova

Paschal says: ``Not only does Bobby have tremendous athletic ability, but he's a great basketball player. You don't score 26 points a game and average 14 rebounds as a junior without a lot of talent. He's a had a knee problem, but we feel it's a chance worth taking.`` Tony Armstrong 6-1, Haines City

Paschal says: ``Tony really shoots the ball well. He's quick and he can play man-to-man defense. He and Maurice could make a nice pair of guards some day.``

[Guest BasketBull.]

Bulls get their shot at big time

HUBERT MIZELL. St. Petersburg Times Jan 16, 1991.

Copyright Times Publishing Co. Jan 16, 1991

Got anything planned Saturday night? May I make a sporting suggestion? Spend eight bucks for a ticket, or $142 less than Super Bowl XXV fare, and watch Florida's highest-ranked college team play an emissary from that all-but-holy basketball alliance, the Atlantic Coast Conference.

We're talking neither Seminoles nor Gators, and not Hurricanes or Hatters. South Florida, a program back from the mid-1980s dead, has an 11-1 record and this week gets a double-dip opportunity to move into the national Top 25.

The Bulls fly away for a Thursday night exam against their most prodigious Sun Belt Conference rival, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (11-5), and then Saturday night in the USF Sun Dome, the opponent is an even more prominent basketball name, the University of Maryland (8-6).

South Florida is circling the Top 25, hoping for a chance to land. Associated Press moved the Bulls up to 30th in this week's voting. USA Today and Sporting News place USF in the 30s. The National sports newspaper says No. 61, even though only eight schools have better won-loss percentages.

"I'm proud of being 30th, or whatever," said Bulls coach Bobby Paschal, "but we've got a lotta, lotta tough games upcoming. It's just fun to be competing at a higher and higher level."

Get no distorted ideas. USF isn't yet equipped to seriously challenge for the Final Four. Being ranked in the 30s is about right, but if the Bulls somehow beat both UAB and Maryland, the Top 25 should be their reward. South Florida is a well-coached, bang-the-boards, hard-working, defensively stalking team that for 1 1/2 seasons has been inching upward. This season, they have lost only to Florida State, 80-72 a month ago.

If you go Saturday night, you'll see a quick, effective offensive penetrator in 6-foot-1 USF point guard Marvin Taylor. This is not a team blessed with 7-footers, but inside Paschal has quick, powerful jumpers in 6-7 Gary Alexander, 6-7Fred Lewis and 6-5 Bobby Russell.

Most renowned Bull is 6-7 Radenko Dobras, partly because he's a long-range shooter, but also due to the big kid with the big smile being from Yugoslavia. This season, Dobras began by spraining both wrists and has been shooting a slumpish 40 percent.

Dobras' scoring average (14.6) ranks behind both Taylor (16.6) and Alexander (16.2), but when the Bulls needed Radenko most, he made a dramatic buzzer-beating jump shot last week to beat Western Kentucky 87-86.

What you won't see when Maryland takes the floor is the Terps' catalyst and leading scorer, 6-8 point guard Walt Williams, who broke a leg last week against Duke. "That would've been a tough matchup for us, facing a point guard who's taller than our inside players," Paschal said. "But Gary Williams is a heck of a coach at Maryland, and we're going to be up against one enormous challenge."

Paschal, low-key architect of USF's renaissance, answered my question about his team's legitimate current status by pointing to a sign in his campus office that suggests, "We aren't where we want to be, but thank goodness we aren't where we used to be."

It's a message hung on the wall by Paul Griffin, the Tampa school's athletic director, who didn't sugarcoat a gone-sour situation in 1986 when Paschal was being hired to replace Lee Rose.

Paschal swam upstream for three seasons, against severe budget, image and personnel currents. It led to records of 8-20, 6-22 and 7-21, before the sun broke through last season with a 20-11 record and Sun Belt championship that put the Bulls in the NCAA Tournament.

USF, picked to repeat in the Sun Belt, is away to a 3-0 start. "Even when I came here, and things were pretty tough," Paschal said, "I knew how rich the basketball potential was in Florida, and how terrific an area Tampa Bay was, and how solid a university South Florida was to sell to young athletes.

"Even with all the lumps, I never saw anybody getting discouraged. Three years ago, at the end of a 6-22 season, we'd won a couple of late games and players were practicing as though we had a chance for a national championship."

In the infant hours of 1991, breaks are now coming. USF has won four straight games by four points or fewer. Dobras was in a 3-for-12 dearth against Western when he suddenly hit the killer.

"A major ingredient we needed this season was to convince more people that South Florida can excel at this high basketball level," Paschal said. "Hopefully, that's a view that is now spreading."

[Guest BasketBull.]

USF hoops takes on a big-time feel

MARC TOPKIN,St. Petersburg Times Dec 24, 1991

Bobby Paschal is sitting back, ticking off the areas where he'd like to see his University of South Florida basketball team improve.

Rebounding, he says, could be better. Free-throw shooting should be more accurate. And it would be nice to bring the opponent's field-goal percentage down a drop.

To know Paschal, and really to know any major-college coach, is to understand the need to feel that improvement, at any given moment, is just as important as that next breath.

"I feel like things are going well for our program," Paschal said Monday. "As a team, and as a coach, you certainly always, every day, look for things to improve and try to sustain a solid program."

The key word there is sustain.

USF has had some good teams before. A 19-8 season in 1975-76; 18-11 in '80-81; 22-10 in '82-83; 18-12 in '84-85.

But in the five years under Paschal, the low-key fella from Enterprise, Ala., USF has built a program.

After three seasons with 20 or more losses, the Bulls went 20-11 in 1989-90 and earned their way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Last season, they were 19-11 and went to the NIT for the first time since 1985.

And this could be the best team yet. The Bulls start a five that includes three fifth-year seniors (Gary Alexander, Fred Lewis and Bobby Russell), a soon-to-be 24-year-old fourth-year senior (Radenko Dobras) and a junior transfer (Derrick Sharp) who was the state's junior-college player of the year.

They're 6-1. They've just knocked off Florida and Florida State back-to-back. They could be on the verge of their first-ever national ranking. And they're heading into their own holiday tournament that should give them a crack at 23rd-ranked Iowa on Saturday night.

Sure, the NFL's monthlong tournament kicks off Saturday. And the gluttonous serving of college football bowl games is under way.

But this weekend, hoops are what's hot.

The Bulls have their Friday-Saturday tournament with the big-time, Big Ten Hawkeyes. Sunday night, No. 12 Seton Hall and No. 24 Georgetown are both in action at the Florida Suncoast Dome. Head east, and No. 11 Michigan is part of an Orlando tournament (Saturday, Monday) that includes the Gators.

These high-profile opponents are all part of the package that comes with big-time college basketball programs.

"I think basketball in our state is really under way," Paschal said. He's talking everything from high schools to small colleges to the state's major schools hooking up with major conferences like the ACC (Florida State), SEC (Florida), Big East (Miami) and Metro (USF).

"You're going to see these kinds of things continue to happen, the quality of play and the quality of opposition," Paschal said. "I feel it's really on the move. And I don't think it's happening in the future; I think it's right now."

For the Bulls, the future certainly is now. Anyone in the Sun Dome on Friday (and it wasn't all that easy to get in), would agree. A record crowd of 10,411 watched the Bulls knock off the Seminoles, who had just knocked off North Carolina.

The noise the intensity the excitement it almost sounded like Big Ten country or Tobacco Road. To the ears of FSU coach Pat Kennedy, the Sun Dome was louder than the Dean Dome.

"It seems our students, our fans and basketball fans around the area and the state have gained a certain measure of respect for our program," Paschal said.

"Practically any game they go to, people expect us to have a very good chance of winning. That adds a tremendous amount of excitement and emotion that people show in support of our team."

Quickly, Paschal adds that the next leg of the schedule is nothing easy.

An ESPN-arranged New Year's Eve date with 7-1 Cincinnati. Texas Christian in Tampa. The Metro Conference opener with No. 25 North Carolina-Charlotte. A road game at No. 21 Louisville.

"Clearly, we've got some great challenges," Paschal said. "Along with them come some great opportunities for our fans and for our team."

Sure, the Bulls are a bit thin on the bench. They don't really have a true big man to bang underneath. And the Metro, with two Top 25 teams and a few other contenders, is a tougher loop than the Sun Belt.

Oh, yeah, and they've got to work on their rebounding.

[Brad]

Thanks B-Bull - that's a great flashback read...the first two stories closely mirror where we are today...

[wagers]

Great post.....just shows how far we have come.

One note....Tommy Tonelli's college choices were Virginia Commenwealth and USF.  And he was on that noted list.  Rose might have been those guys that wanted to win with 'less'.  Greenie, on the other hand, likes his card stack leaning in his favor.