It's March and, yes, we're still talking about USF basketball

Let's be honest. In most years, you could pretty well hit the "ignore" button on University of South Florida men's basketball after, oh, Thanksgiving. Sometimes the Bulls could keep your interest up into early January, but it was basically over once they got into Big East Conference play.

So in that spirit, I'm going to relay a conversation I had with a friend after the Bulls beat Connecticut last Saturday.

I said something brilliantly insightful, roughly to the effect of, "Nice win for the Bulls, huh?"

He replied, "Yeah, but that's a game they should win."

Idly, I agreed, and we moved on. But if you want a measuring post for how far the Bulls have come this year, consider that the 75-68 victory against UConn couldn't even be considered an upset. The Bulls were favored by a point. That actually was a game they should have won.

Today is another one.

The Bulls should beat DePaul in their opening game at the Big East Tournament in New York, although there are lots of basketball teams that can tell you about the folly of looking ahead in March. Cincinnati is one of those teams.

Like USF, the Bearcats were seeded ninth last year in the Big East Tournament and drew DePaul.

They lost to DePaul in the opening round.

I'm sure Bulls coach Stan Heath brought that up once or twice in the last couple of days.

It's pretty well accepted that USF has to win three games in the next three days to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament. That would mean victories over Georgetown and Syracuse as well as DePaul, and that's a ridiculously tall mountain.

But while we wait to see what drama unfolds at Madison Square Garden and whether it ends in the Big Dance or the NIT, let's think ahead to the next step in the building of this program.

The Bulls busted through one major barrier this year, finishing 9-9 in the Big East after starting 0-4. There are people who would have sworn they'd never see in their lifetime the Bulls consistently compete on a level like that, but that always seemed like a ridiculous notion to me.

People who said that conveniently overlooked that USF has the resources and a national name. The school lacks tradition, true, but I'm not sure how much that matters these days. The pool of talented players nationwide is so deep, thanks to AAU programs where top players are spotted and developed earlier than ever, that a program like USF's should be able to gets its share.

The Bulls can and should expect to be competitive in the Big East every year.

I'll be interested to see whether their nonconference schedule improves in the coming years. The Bulls' strength of schedule outside the Big East ranked only 248th nationally. That's probably why they're not being seriously considered as a bubble team right now. A loss in December to Central Michigan (RPI of 192) - the first game after Augustus Gilchrist went out with an ankle injury - hangs around their neck today like a millstone.

Even though the Bulls beat UConn and have a better overall record, the Huskies rank 54th in RPI compared to 63rd for USF, strictly on strength of schedule. The Huskies had the seventh-toughest nonconference schedule in the land, and that can make all the difference this time of year.

The Bulls lose Chris Howard, Mike Mercer and Alex Rivas from this team - I'm going to assume, for now, that Dominique Jones will return - but 6-foot-8 transfer forward Ron Anderson will be eligible next year, and Heath just can't stop talking about what he expects from that. You can't just build a program on transfers and JuCo's though, but the good news is that recruiting should get a little easier after a season like this.

I asked Heath earlier this season whether USF's success meant that more recruits were taking his calls now. He just smiled.

"They're calling me," he said.

USF has had pockets of success over the years in basketball but could never sustain it. This has been a season about busting through barriers, though - from the ground-breaking of the fancy new practice facility, to the success in the Big East this season and all the good publicity USF has received nationally.

Crowds were better at the Sun Dome. Interest was greatly increased.

It's about time.

The work is far from done, and the program is far from built, but it's March and we're still talking about USF basketball. Depending what happens over the next few days in New York, we could be talking a lot more.