So far, a pleasant surprise from Bulls

Column

The Big East wins — yes, Big East wins — keep coming for the South Florida men's basketball team. The count is four, more than all last conference season, after Wednesday's 64-49 victory against St. John's at the Forum.

I don't want to jinx Stan Heath's Bulls, but add last Friday's upset win against ranked Seton Hall to St. John's and that makes two in a row over teams that had priests on their bench. For good measure, USF dunked on God's gift.

That would be St. John's junior forward God'sgift (actual first name) Achiuwa, who felt the thunderous wrath of USF sophomore swingman Victor Rudd Jr., who jammed over Achiuwa. It was part of Rudd's 24-point second half after a goose-egg first 20 minutes. It was a dagger aimed at the SportsCenter Top 10. "I want No. 1 play this time," Rudd said. He got it.

But these Bulls are making slight, encouraging noises no matter where they go, an achievement considering they were picked 14th in the Big East preseason poll and that they're always an away team this season, as the Sun Dome is being remodeled.

So far in the 2011-12 season, let it be known: Nobody goes into the Lakeland Center or the University of Tampa's Martinez Center and beats the Bulls, and only one team, Connecticut, has topped USF at the Forum.

The Bulls are 11-8 overall and 4-2 in the Big East, the 11 wins being more than the Bulls had in 2010-11, when they went 10-23 and just 3-15 in conference after junior scoring dervish Dominique Jones left for the NBA. Jones had led the Bulls to 20 wins and a then-astounding 9-9 Big East record before skipping out.

"I thought we had positioned ourselves well (for last season)," Heath said. "But (Jones) left and that was a big blow. If we're Kentucky or North Carolina, we can lose a guy to the pros and survive. We had to start from scratch and rebuild again."

But the rebuilding, so far, has been a nice surprise, helped by transfers, sparked by a cool, calm freshman point guard and a team that plays as a team, especially on defense, holding opponent's to 57.6 points per game, best in the Big East.

There's a confidence to this team. Rudd, a transfer from Arizona State, missed all his shots in the first half Wednesday, but he kept firing. South Florida junior guard Jawanza Poland scored 16. But the biggest impact might be coming from the new point guard.

His name is Anthony Collins, he's from Houston and he makes things happen, controlling tempo, running the floor, playing defense, using his court smarts, making the right pass. His older brother, J.D., played Big East ball for West Virginia.

"It inspired me a lot, because he always talked about the competition," Collins said. "If you want to be the best, you have to play against the best."

Heath loves Collins' selflessness. The freshman scored precisely zero points Wednesday, but he seemed happy with eight assists and a victory. He might lead the conference in assists one day while placing last in quotes. Collins is painfully shy away from the court.

"I just like to play," he said.

It's not the time to talk, anyway. It hardly ever is at USF. This program hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament in 20 years. The Big East schedule has a way of piling up on the Bulls. By the way, St. John's starts four freshmen.

But South Florida has never at any point in its Big East history been three games over .500 in Big East play. They can do that Sunday with a win at DePaul. Until Wednesday, the Bulls had never been two games over .500 in Big East play.

It isn't staggering, or swaggering, though Jawanza Poland considered Rudd's jam.

"That's swag right there," Poland said.

After all, it was over God'sgift, wasn't it?