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Bulls Try To Improve Fortunes Against Louisville

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By BRETT McMURPHY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 6, 2009

TAMPA - With a record nine Big East teams ranked in this week's Associated Press poll, it shouldn't be surprising the University of South Florida's next opponent is a Top 25 team.

No. 23 Louisville (9-3, 0-0 Big East) visits the Bulls (5-8, 0-1) Wednesday night at the Sun Dome. While seven of the Big East's Top 25 teams are ranked higher than the Cardinals, no team has been more dominating against USF.

The Cards, who are 21-3 all-time against USF, have won the last seven meetings. In their last three trips to Tampa, the Cards' average winning margin has been an obscene 30.3 points.

After Wednesday, the Bulls have a three-game road trip, including at No. 1 Pitt and No. 25 West Virginia, giving the Bulls four ranked teams in their first five league games.

"If you get caught up looking ahead, you can worry yourself to death," USF coach Stan Heath said. "You have to find ways to get your wins and the wins aren't easy.

"Probably technically when you look at the schedules, if you're the oddsmaker, you're probably picking against us in most of these games. That can't be something we're caught up in. We have to find ways to win."

Heath said two examples were Boston College upsetting then No. 1 North Carolina and St. John's upsetting then No. 7 Notre Dame last weekend.

"Who would have gave Boston College [a chance] to get it done?" Heath said. "Who would have gave St. John's [a chance] against Notre Dame and they got it done. That's why we play the game and that's why we're going to prepare ourselves to win."

USF freshman forward Eladio Espinosa said the Bulls gained a lot of confidence from Friday's 57-52 loss to No. 13 Syracuse. The Bulls rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit.

"Personally I love playing a ranked team," Espinosa said. "A lot of people probably hide away from a challenge, but I enjoy the challenge.

"We're looking forward to playing Louisville and Pittsburgh [on Jan. 14]. We understand now we have a chance to win. Everyone knew we could win, but we didn't know how good we were until the second half [against Syracuse]."

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928

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