Yes, this is how South Florida basketball should be

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© St. Petersburg Times,
published December 9, 2001

TAMPA -- Take a snapshot. Freeze the moment.

This is what you want to remember. This was the memory you wish to take with you.

It was early in the second half, and the Sun Dome was jumping. Which was odd because, as basketball arenas go, this one has never had hops.

Will McDonald had just tipped in a basket, and the Bulls had taken a two-point lead over the University of Florida with 17:38 to play, and suddenly, basketball lived here. Fans were bouncing up and down, stomping, screaming, yelling, making plans to go home and watch Hoosiers again.

You could make an argument that exact moment -- right then, right there -- was the most precious one in the last decade of USF basketball. All at once, the school mattered, the program mattered, the afternoon mattered.

Rarely had there been that much juice, that much energy in the Sun Dome. Basketball had become an event, and USF wasleading a great team, and people actually cared! In the heat of the moment, it was difficult to discern which was the biggest upset.

At that moment, in that electricity, it struck you. This is the way it should be around here. This is how the Sun Dome should feel, how the Bulls should look, how the sport should matter. There always should be tents filled with students outside, and lines in front of the ticket window, and Dick Vitale should have a favorite chair. Also, there should be noise.

No, it didn't last. USF hung around for 28 minutes against Florida, but there is a reason the Gators are ranked sixth in the nation in the latest poll. The score was 58-54 with 11:59 to play, and five minutes later, Florida had scored 14 in a row and the game was finished. Great teams are that way; they can run away and hide.

In the end, the Gators had a 19-point victory, and the Bulls were left with a feeling that something special had slipped away. After all, this was about more than basketball. This was about, well, statements.

"It was a chance for us to get our names on the maps," guard Reggie Kohn said.

"I wanted it to be a big game," coach Seth Greenberg said. "We need to play big games."

For those who attended USF, the University of Florida has always been the big house on the hill. Everyone who went to USF lives next to a Gator fan, works next to a Gator fan, car pools with a Gator fan, who will tell him how much better things are in Gainesville. By contrast, USF is the little college that could.

"This game helps this university," Greenberg said. "It kind of enables us to shake that sleepy community college image. If it changes the perception of our university a little, we've done our job."

And so this game grew into something beyond the sport. Since Halloween, students have been pitching tents outside the Sun Dome. Every week, the neighborhood has grown into a makeshift village. There were dozens of them Friday night, housing hundreds of students.

Can you imagine Bob Knight stepping between the tents, handing out pizza, the way Greenberg did on Friday night? Can you picture Tubby Smith handing out bagels, as Greenberg did on Saturday morning? Such are the requirements of a coach trying to drum up a full house at USF. "There's a little Pied Piper to it," Greenberg admitted.

Then there was Vitale, the bugler of college basketball, who hadn't been in the building since coming to see Frank and Liza and Sammy 10 years ago. As far as basketball, it had been 20 seasons since Dickie V. had walked through the door in search of a game.

Before the game, Vitale talked about statement games, of the necessity to perform when you can get a nation to pay attention. He talked about his University of Detroit team upsetting Michigan in 1975-76 as a comparison.

Statement? Here's one. Had USF upset Florida, it would have cracked the Top 25. It would have run its record to 8-0. It would have notched one to make the NCAA selection committee pay attention.

Statement? Here's another. Gee. Why can't USF basketball be like this?

Really, why can't it be? What the heck else are students doing that's so important on nights that FSU, Cincinnati and Memphis come to town? What's wrong with sleeping in a tent? And why shouldn't the Sun Dome be a hornet's nest?

Consider this: Even if USF had upset Florida, it still would have 21 games to play. Sure, a victory would have been nice. But by itself, it wouldn't have constituted a whole lot.

Ask Billy Donovan, who will tell you even big victories are a blur over the course of a season. Donovan talks of upsetting Kentucky in his second season with Florida. That year, Florida had a losing record, and Kentucky won the national title.

"If South Florida had beaten us, it wouldn't have mattered more than a couple of weeks," Donovan said.

So what happens now? Do Bulls fans fold their tents, literally, and go home? Or do they come back.

After all, they have seen the Bulls now. And the Bulls have seen them. Wouldn't it be nice if they could drive a stake together?

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