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Bulls Have Brief Stay At The Garden

The Associated Press

South Florida's Gus Gilchrist, rear, fouls Seton Hall's Robert Mitchell in the opening round of the Big East Conference tournament.

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By BRETT McMURPHY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2009

Updated: 03/11/2009 12:33 am

NEW YORK - It took a four long years and a vote of the Big East's presidents for the University of South Florida men's basketball team to finally make the Big East Tournament.

Then Tuesday, the Bulls had to wait until 9:19 p.m. to finally tip off on the famed Madison Square Garden court.

The Bulls' stay wasn't quite as long as they hoped, as 14th-seeded USF was eliminated by No. 11-seed Seton Hall 68-54.

USF (9-22) tied for the most losses in a season in program history, set previously in 2005-06 and 1987-88. It also was the lowest scoring team in the program's 38-year history, averaging 59 points a game. The Bulls did, however, go 4-14 in league play, the most victories they've had in four years in the league.

To get acclimated to the atmosphere of the Big East Tournament, the Bulls' players and coaches watched the first two games from the stands. What they witnessed was two huge underdogs - No. 16 DePaul and No. 13 St. John's - pull off huge upsets.

"We were hoping that would let them get used to the environment," USF coach Stan Heath said. "I think it did. I think it helped."

The Bulls were hoping to continue the upset theme against the Pirates (17-14), who had beaten the Bulls 75-60 on Feb. 25, but USF quickly fell in a 10-point hole.

"I even had little butterflies," USF sophomore guard Dominique Jones said, "so I can imagine what the rest of the team felt like."

USF rallied from a 25-15 deficit to take a 32-30 halftime lead, but the Pirates opened the second half on a 21-9 run for a 51-41 lead with 12:03 remaining. The Bulls never came closer than eight points the rest of the way and only made one field goal in the final 5:38.

"We've been inconsistent offensively," Heath said. "It's been a lot of highs and lows trying to score the ball for us. We had a high in the first half, 52 percent which was great.

"The second half we had one of those lulls. The free-throw shooting - which has been sporadic, at times we've knocked them down, at times we've just struggled - that was something that hurt us. We couldn't keep pace."

In the second half, USF was limited to only 22 points and shot 36.4 percent from the field. For the game, USF hit only 50 percent of its free throws (10 of 20).

Jones led USF with 14 points and eight rebounds.

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