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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2002
TAMPA -- The hollering by Florida State's players during the walk to the locker room, mixed with some emphatic expletives of joy, gave the distinct impression they had just won a huge game.
And for a struggling program that hadn't won in Tampa since 1989, that might be true.
After all, coach Steve Robinson said, his team's 78-74 victory over South Florida at the Sun Dome was its first road victory of the season and came against what he said was an "NCAA-projected team."
But did it? Regardless of power polls and Sagarin rankings, the Bulls hardly looked the part Wednesday in losing their third game in the past five and third in a row against teams not named Bucknell or Illinois-Chicago.
In the kind of game NCAA-projected teams win, the Bulls turned in a final 10 minutes of inconsistent play to fall to 9-3 entering Saturday's Conference USA opener against TCU.
"I didn't think we played that bad tonight," USF coach Seth Greenberg said. "We just didn't make enough basketball plays."
Those basketball plays would apply to the final minutes and include making free throws (the Bulls shot 59 percent), taking care of the ball (two turnovers in the final three minutes) and making open jumpers (just five field goals in the final 10 minutes).
The Bulls' woes, which included failing to convert enough of FSU's 25 turnovers into points, were magnified down the stretch, when they squandered numerous opportunities. After B.B. Waldon was fouled and scored inside to tie it at 68, he failed to convert his free throw with 4:53 left. FSU (7-5) responded as Delvon Arrington drove for a layup. After Altron Jackson was called for a charge, Michael Joiner drilled a 3-pointer to make it 73-68.
Twice after Joiner's basket USF got steals, and twice it turned it right back over.
After Greg Brittian made one of his two free throws to make it 73-69, Jackson fired up an air ball 3-pointer with 1:23 left, and the Seminoles slowly pulled away with five free throws to offset a late Waldon 3-pointer.
"Turnovers," was Jackson's answer to what went wrong for USF, which led 52-45 after making 7 of 8 shots to start the second half.
"We turned the ball over, and they converted. It hurts. We should have won this game, but that's the way it is sometimes."
Jackson's misfire spoiled a game in which he led the Bulls with 23 points and seven rebounds and set a team and C-USA record with 10 steals. He broke the record of Radenko Dobras, whose number was retired at halftime.
Waldon played only 1:43 of the first half because he picked up two fouls. But the Bulls rallied from an 11-point deficit to lead 35-33 at halftime. He also sat out almost five minute in the second after being elbowed in the face and finished with seven points.
Monte Cummings led the Seminoles with 20 points, including 14 in the second half. He scored 11 of FSU's first 14 to keep it in a game USF was on the verge of blowing open.
He finally got help with 8:34 left when Joiner (11 points) hit a 3-pointer to give FSU a 61-59 lead it did not relinquish.