Busting Brackets
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AAC Basketball: Preseason rankings for 2019-20 season

By Pan Karalis

ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 11: during the final game of the 2018 AAC Basketball Championship against at Amway Center on March 11, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 11: during the final game of the 2018 AAC Basketball Championship against at Amway Center on March 11, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /
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HARTFORD, CT – JANUARY 25: Bo Zeigler #35 of the South Florida Bulls reacts following a shot in the first half against the Connecticut Huskies during the game at the XL Center on January 25, 2015 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
HARTFORD, CT – JANUARY 25: Bo Zeigler #35 of the South Florida Bulls reacts following a shot in the first half against the Connecticut Huskies during the game at the XL Center on January 25, 2015 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) /

. . Bulls . 6. team. 477.

Remember when the Bulls were picked to finish dead last in the American last season? South Florida has gone from perennial AAC laughing-stock to a team generating serious talk of earning a Tournament appearance in less than a year. Second-year coach Brian Gregory wasted no time turning around a program that had win totals in the single digits the three consecutive years before his arrival. The team won 24 times last year, including a CIT championship and an astoundingly respectable 8-10 conference record.

Like their rivals in Orlando did a season ago, South Florida might be putting their best-ever team on the court in 2019-2020. The Bulls return a thoroughly talented core of David Collins, all-AAC and AAC defensive player of the year Laquincy Rideau, and AAC rookie of the year Alexis Yetna. The three combined to average over 40 points a game a season ago, Yetna himself almost ten rebounds. Gregory will also have back his other two leading scorers, Justin Brown and Michael Durr, who will likely be rounding out a lethal and well-balanced starting five.

I don’t want to get too high on South Florida quite yet. Gregory’s recruiting to date in Tampa might leave something to be desired, and the team did falter at the end of the last regular season, a time during which you’d expect to see a young, up-and-coming team emerge. And with Rideau entering his final year of eligibility, there will be a lot of pressure on an untested and unproven South Florida team.

The Bulls should be playing meaningful March basketball, and they’re definitely a wildcard with a huge ceiling. They return more minutes and scoring than anyone else in the league, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see them finish as high as third. For now, this is where I’m comfortable with South Florida.