College basketball

National stage beckons the upset-minded Bulls

By GREG AUMAN
Published December 10, 2005

TAMPA - One more big win, and USF's women's basketball team will stop being an underdog and wind up as the nationally ranked team on somebody else's schedule.

Coach Jose Fernandez entered this season knowing his team faced an ultra-tough schedule that included three of last year's Final Four teams. But after the Bulls' overtime upset of No.11 DePaul on Wednesday, he might have a tough time getting those programs to play him again.

If the motivation of getting picked ninth in the Big East was wearing off, the Bulls got a new spark this week when they lost the few scattered votes they had garnered in the national polls after a 71-47 loss at No.7 UNC .

"We've got some tough kids, and they take that stuff personally," Fernandez said. "I don't have to motivate them much. I tell you what, I'd take every one of them with me in an alley."

Losing by 24 in Chapel Hill didn't look so bad after the Tar Heels followed with a 23-point win at No.8 Connecticut. Even in the context of USF's last two opponents, tonight's opponent won't be easy for the Bulls.

Tonight at 6, the Bulls get their third game against a top-15 team in eight days, closing a doubleheader by hosting No.13 Michigan State (5-2), which won 33 games last season before losing to Baylor in the national championship game.

"We have to prepare for a whole different style," Fernandez said. "Michigan State is a zone-oriented team, very, very physical, one of the toughest teams in the country. It's ... a lot of preparation for the girls and for the staff."

Few if any teams will see as much of college basketball's elite programs as USF, which will play seven teams ranked in the top 13 in this week's AP poll: No.3 LSU, No.6 Rutgers, No.7 North Carolina, No.8 Connecticut, No.10 Notre Dame, No.11 DePaul and tonight's Spartans.

With the intent to prepare USF for its first season in the Big East, Fernandez figured the Bulls' RPI would be high enough to make the NCAA tournament for the first time if they finished with a winning league record. "It feels good, but we feel like we're just as good as anybody in the nation," senior forward Ezria Parsons, who said she didn't think of Wednesday's win as an upset. "I feel like we could do that any day."

Just how good can the Bulls (6-1) be in the Big East? If the DePaul win is any indication, they could be a lot higher than ninth.

"Anybody who knows our league knows that Rutgers and UConn should have been picked 1-2. I've told everybody that 3 through 10 is a wash. It's a push," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said after Wednesday's loss."I certainly expected South Florida to be a very good basketball team. They won 21 games last year, they went to the NIT last two years, they've got a lot of kids back and a great player."

And if the Bulls want an extra dose of hope and optimism, they need only look at the other bench tonight. Four years ago, the Spartans played in the NIT, then lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2003, and the second round in 2004. The freshmen who played in the NIT reached the NCAA championship game as seniors. Tonight, the Bulls get a better sense of how close they are to following in Michigan State's footsteps.

[Last modified December 10, 2005, 00:51:18]