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

By Bryan Mauro | Sep 25, 2018

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) /

3 of 6

WICHITA, KS – JANUARY 07: Stephan Jiggetts #0 of the South Florida Bulls drives to the basket against Rauno Nurger #20 of the Wichita State Shockers during the first half on January 7, 2018 at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /

Key Additions

Coach Gregory is going to need to get creative to attempt to replace the production he lost a season ago. One of the ways that the Bulls have gone about replenishing the talent in the program quickly is via the transfer market. As mentioned above the two best players on the previous year’s team were both immediately eligible graduate transfers. This season the Bulls and coach Gregory are looking at two newly eligible transfers to carry the load left by Jiggetts and Banks.

LaQuincy Rideau is in his second year in Tampa but only his first year eligible to play for the Bulls. He joins the Bulls as a transfer from Gardner-Webb. While with Gardner-Webb, the junior guard put up impressive numbers that should translate over to the American Conference quite nicely. Rideau is a true point guard and he was the first player in Big South history to post a season with at least 150 rebounds, 150 assists and 100 steals. If he continues his high level of play. The guard will help coach Gregory forget about Jiggetts.

TJ Lang is the other transfer guard who is going to be asked to help account for some of the production left by the two graduate transfers. He’s another guard who recently became eligible to play for the Bulls. The guard who arrived in Tampa after three years at Auburn is looking for more playing time overall.

Lang played in a large number of games while with the Tigers but he was never able to play a lot of minutes. How Gregory will utilize Lang remains to be seen, as Lang in three years has never averaged double-digit points per game. The senior will fill in at the wing spot left vacant by Banks.

Rideau and Lang are going to be relied upon to score and lead the Bulls. Coach Gregory needs Rideau to play like the player he has been in the past. Don’t ask him to do too much. It is going to be a difficult task for this version of the Bulls to win a handful of games. Outside of Rideau and Lang there is not much to build around. Gregory is starting the rebuild the right way by getting key transfers who have experience playing college basketball. This will allow him to bring the freshman along slowly.