All is quiet on the recruiting front, in spite of the fact that 15 football recruits were on campus this weekend. All had something nice to say about USF and the coaching staff, but there are no new commitments to announce and the speculation about said potential commitments is the business of other sites. That said, it looks like there may be some big fish landed on February 1st. At present, the Bulls have one of the worst classes in the AAC and one of the worst in program history.
Looking Back
The #20 USF women’s basketball head coach, Jose Fernandez, is approaching is 300th win with the program. That’s a big accomplishment and the Tampa Bay Times’ Joey Knight looks back at their five biggest wins.
The #25 USF men’s tennis team swept FGCU over the weekend in doubles and singles action.
Looking Forward
The Tampa Bay Times’, Joey Knight, adds to the speculation about USF athletic director, Mark Harlan, being targeted for the same job at Arizona. Harlan has connections at the school, where he earned his masters degree.
Much has been made of a rivalry between USF and UCF in the media and from both schools’ administrations. Such a rivalry has still yet to come to fruition, after many years of non-conference play and several years of in-conference play. In spite of the failure to manufacture such a rivalry, the two schools are closest to one another than they are to any other major university, and that’s enough to spark interest, even without a compelling rivalry storyline. Their men’s basketball teams will take it to the hardwood tonight at CFE Arena at 7 PM.
The men’s basketball team is trying to rebound from a long slump, which included a close loss to Memphis after a 16 point comeback put them within two points with two minutes to go. The Tigers would regroup and pull away, winning 62-56 on Saturday.
Other Stuff
The core members of this blog, have had a running debate over many years regarding recruiting. Questions about the value of star ratings to the obsessive nature of some fans to seek out information on the plans of young men, far before they are even members of the fans’ favorite team. There is a prevailing truth in all of the debates, though, that is that quality players are important to the growth and success of a football program. Scout’s Ryan Abraham uses math to demonstrate how quality players usually are the ones who get high star ratings.
