NCAA Basketball: Arizona, Baylor, and BYU rise in latest top 25 power rankings
By Joey Loose
25. South Florida (22-5)
Early in December, South Florida sat just 2-4 and with a few pretty bad losses already under their belt. Fast forward three months and things couldn’t have gone better for a Bulls team whose only loss came at UAB in early January. They’ve been a shocking surprise in the AAC to say the very least and simply continue to keep winning.
South Florida asserted themselves back on Sunday with an impressive 79-68 over SMU, one of the better teams in the conference. The Bulls were led by Kasean Pryor (19 points, 9 rebounds) and Selton Miguel (18 points) who both had great games off the bench. Fast forwarding several days, the Bulls kept it up on the road, winning 76-61 at Charlotte on Saturday afternoon. Chris Youngblood led the team with 17 points while Pryor had 16 points and 9 rebounds in the win.
In a year that was supposed to belong to Florida Atlantic or even Memphis, it’s been South Florida running away with the conference race in the AAC. Not only have the Bulls beaten both of those teams during this 14-game winning streak, but they’ve won seven straight on the road and have shown no signs of stopping. It’s just Tulane and Tulsa on the docket before the important conference tournament, because South Florida’s early struggles will prevent them from gaining an at-large bid.