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South Florida Basketball: Bulls to play Indiana in Hoosier Classic

By Daniel Benjamin

HARTFORD, CT - JANUARY 25: Troy Holston Jr.
HARTFORD, CT - JANUARY 25: Troy Holston Jr. /
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The USF Bulls recently released the 2017-18 non-conference schedule which appears to be fairly favorable. Can the Bulls parlay that into a quick start to the upcoming season?

The USF Bulls are once again a team in transition. The Bulls, who have had just five winning seasons since 2000, are coming off os a disastrous 2016-17 season where they went 7-23. The Bulls dealt with several things this past season, including an academic scandal, leaving players behind at an airport, and the firing of coach Orlando Antigua 13 games into the campaign. Antigua posted a 23-55 record in his time at USF.

USF will enter 2017-18 under new head coach Brian Gregory. Gregory is a veteran D-I head coach who compiled a 76-86 record in five seasons at Georgia Tech (2011-2016). He served as a consultant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State last year. Gregory is the school’s 10th head coach of all time with five of those coaches coming since 2003.

The good news for Gregory is that he will have a fairly veteran club. USF returns two of its top three scorers to go along with a plethora of grad transfers. The Bulls also have a moderate non-conference schedule, which was just released on July 3.

USF typically plays an easy non-conference schedule, allowing them to get off to a decent start. The Bulls won four of their first six games and were 6-5 during the non-conference portion of their schedule in 2016-17. The Bulls played nine of those 11 games in the state of Florida, including eight home games. Remember, just two of those games were against top-eight conference teams — George Washington and South Carolina.

USF will once again have a home dominant non-conference schedule this year. The Bulls will open up the 2017-18 season with two games at home against Florida Atlantic and Morgan State. They will head to DeLand, Florida, to take on Stetson. The Bulls will then travel to Indiana to take on the Hoosiers on November 19, before closing the month with three straight games at home.

USF starts the month of December in North Carolina with games against Elon and Appalachian State. The Bulls finish the non-league portion of the schedule with four straight home games. In total, the Bulls’ 11 non-conference opponents compiled a 140-225 record a season ago. Three of the 11 teams had a winning record. Arkansas State went 20-12 while Indiana and Elon each finished with 18 victories.

Redshirt sophomore forward Tulio Da Silva and redshirt junior guard Troy Holston led the Bulls returnees from last year, averaging over nine points a piece. Da Silva was also the Bulls top rebounder at 6.2 a game.

Stephan Jiggetts is among three graduate transfers who will suit up for the Bulls this season. Jiggets averaged 13 points, four rebounds, and three assists at Fairleigh Dickinson last year. USF also will also feature two Penn State graduate transfers in Terrence Samuel and Payton Banks. In addition, 6’11” redshirt junior center Malik Martin is eligible after sitting out a season ago. Martin transferred from USC.

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USF has a 610-731 all-time record. The Bulls have made three NCAA appearances and eight NIT appearances in program history. However, they only have reached the NCAA Tournament once this century (2012).