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South Florida Basketball: Previewing the 2018-19 season for the Bulls

By Bryan Mauro

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 27: The head coach Brian Gregory of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts against Villanova Wildcats during the NIT Season Tip-Off Championship game at Barclays Center on November 27, 2015 in Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 27: The head coach Brian Gregory of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts against Villanova Wildcats during the NIT Season Tip-Off Championship game at Barclays Center on November 27, 2015 in Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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WICHITA, KS – JANUARY 07: Zach Brown #1 of the Wichita State Shockers reaches for the ball against Justin Brown #13 of the South Florida Bulls during the first half on January 7, 2018 at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
WICHITA, KS – JANUARY 07: Zach Brown #1 of the Wichita State Shockers reaches for the ball against Justin Brown #13 of the South Florida Bulls during the first half on January 7, 2018 at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /

South Florida Basketball has been stuck at the bottom of the AAC since it’s inception. Can the 2018-19 season end up being different for the Bulls?

In 2012, South Florida Basketball made a surprise run to the NCAA tournament. Since that magical run, things have not gone according to plan in Tampa. Many things about the program have changed in that time. The Bulls left the Big East for the American Athletic Conference, former head coach Stan Heath is no longer the coach. The basketball team from Tampa is now on their third coach since that season.

New head coach Brian Gregory took over for Orlando Antigua. The Antigua era in Tampa took far to long to end. He never did anything of note for the program, and Gregory has a lot of work ahead of him to get this program competitive again. Gregory is a product of the Tom Izzo coaching tree and has shown he can be a winner when given time in his previous programs.

As the Bulls try to pick up the pieces of a program that was left in shambles by the previous coaching staff. Gregory is out scouring every junior college and making a recruiting to every transfer he can find on the market. In his first year Bulls fans have a lot of things to be optimistic about. Gregory led the Bulls to double-digit wins for the first time in three seasons. Three of those wins came from conference play a season ago.

Three conference wins is nothing to write home about. As a program when you had only won one conference game the season before. The three conference wins is a giant step forward. The Bulls are in the midst of a full-fledged rebuild and have a young team with not much experience. They are going to struggle mightily this year, but to have a successful rebuild with any program you must tear it all down before you can build it back up.