College basketball

Bulls taste future, and it's sour

By GREG AUMAN
Published December 11, 2005

TAMPA - Perhaps ESPN2 isn't USF's favorite channel.

Playing in their only nationally televised game this season, the Bulls lost 68-47 Saturday to undefeated Michigan. It was their worst loss and largest home crowd since a 26-point defeat to Cincinnati in January, their last ESPN2 appearance.

"They put it on us, but they showed us what it's going to be like in the Big East," junior forward Melvin Buckley said. "Coach (Robert McCullum) said sometimes it takes a loss, a big-time loss, to get your head straight, to make a team jell, to see what you have to do to come out on top."

The Bulls trailed by as many as 33 before a Sun Dome crowd of 5,845, the third largest in McCullum's three seasons. USF (4-3) held its own for eight minutes, but the Wolverines (7-0) broke a 12-all tie with a 19-0 run that included four fastbreak baskets off Bulls turnovers.

"It just mushroomed," McCullum said. "Whatever could go wrong did."

Trouble started when USF center Solomon Jones picked up his second foul with 16:33 left in the first half. Jones only sat seven minutes, while Michigan's top scorer and rebounder, Courtney Sims, sat longer, playing four first-half minutes with two fouls. But the Wolverines dominated the boards, outrebounding the Bulls 29-13 in the half, which ended with a 39-19 lead.

"You can't really say much to it. You just have to take it on the chin, get up and get ready for Thursday (against Florida Atlantic)," said Buckley, who had a game-high 12 rebounds but missed 10 of his first 11 shots.

The Bulls got a game-high 20 points from senior guard James Holmes, an Ypsilanti, Mich., native who was 8-of-17 with three 3-pointers. The Bulls shot 37 percent and committed 20 turnovers, seven during Michigan's 19-0 run. Coach Tommy Amaker credited defensive pressure for allowing his team to build a "decidedly comfortable margin."

"I thought our kids did a phenomenal job of that. It allowed us to get some steals and transition buckets, to get out and use our athleticism," said Amaker, off to his best start in five seasons.

Saturday marked the Bulls' first Big East-caliber challenge after six games with lesser opponents, including losses against Florida International and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Holmes is the only healthy guard on scholarship, with point guards Chris Howard and Collin Dennis sidelined with injuries. Walk-on point guard Chris Capko played 38 minutes, had six assists but a game-high six turnovers.

"One of the areas that's most frustrating is the number of breakdowns we have, whether it's running out-of-bounds plays, running a set," McCullum said. "I'm not talking about things we put in yesterday or this morning. And we can't sub, or can maybe make one sub, and have the security that we can execute whatever we want to execute."

Michigan got 18 points from forward Lester Abram and 16 points and five steals from guard Daniel Horton. After Thursday's home game against FIU, the Bulls head to Hawaii for the Rainbow Classic Dec.20-23.

[Last modified December 11, 2005, 02:15:36]