USF's Rudd finds the perfect place

TAMPA – His spectacular dunks have landed him on the ESPN "SportsCenter'' Top 10 plays three times in the past six weeks.

He had 30 points in one early game. Last month, he had 24 points in one half .

Victor Rudd Jr., a well-traveled sophomore, already is going places for the University of South Florida Bulls (15-10, 8-4 Big East Conference), who face Villanova (11-13, 4-8) tonight at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. But if you ask him to name his biggest thrill from this season, the answer might be surprising.

"I think I'm fitting in well,'' said Rudd, 20, a transfer from Arizona State, who averages 8.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. "Part of me thinks I'd like to be doing more than I'm doing. But really, if you're winning, the individual numbers don't matter. I feel like I'm in a good place.''

Rudd, a 6-foot-7, 221-pound swingman, just needed some time to find it.

After playing for two Los Angeles area high schools, Rudd finished at Findlay College Prep, near Las Vegas. He signed with Arizona State, where he scored just 38 points in 15 games as a freshman, then concluded that ASU's deliberate offense wasn't a good fit.

"Here at USF, I feel like I'm at home,'' Rudd said.

Rudd loves to push the tempo and take chances, while aggressively attacking the rim.

"He's an impressive dunker,'' Bulls coach Stan Heath said. "It lights up my eyes, too. He does impressive things out there where you say, 'Wow!' He doesn't do the basic dunks, the basic plays. At certain times, I kind of don't like it. But I also know these are energy plays that our team and fans really get into.

"I want all our players to make aggressive plays. If they make an aggressive play and it doesn't go our way, I can live with it. When it's a non-aggressive play, that bothers me. I'd rather him make a play instead of shying away from contact and taking a floating fadeaway shot.''

With Rudd, there's no need to worry.

Against St. John's, he drove into the lane, elevated over a would-be defender and threw down a vicious slam.

Against Pittsburgh, he split two defenders at full speed, then soared for a two-handed reverse dunk – in traffic, no less.

"It was just crazy,'' said USF senior forward Ron Anderson Jr.

"I was going down the middle, but somebody cut me off,'' Rudd said. "I didn't think I was going to reverse it. At first I was like, 'How did that happen?' People said, 'How did you do that?' I don't know. That happens a lot to me. I do a lot of dunks that just kind of happen.''

Heath won't move to stifle that creativity. At the same time, he's delighted with the versatility in Rudd's game. Over the summer, Heath said Rudd was "as dynamic a player and scorer as you're going to find (in the Big East).''

He has since learned that Rudd's rebounding (he had 11 points and 10 boards against Providence) and defense are just as valuable.

"Vic is capable of putting up more (scoring) numbers, but he's got to continue to work,'' Heath said. "This is really his first experience in college basketball. He's like that first-year guy who's up and down. But he has shown signs of how he can score.''

His teammates have noticed, too. Even more, though, they've seen a player who expands his overall game.

"Vic plays a really big role in a lot of our runs,'' Anderson said. "I know about the dunks. I know about the shots from long range. And they're great.

"But the play I remember was at DePaul. I got a putback dunk and I was running down the court. I turned around and saw Vic. He was so happy. You could see it in his face. You know how much he wants to win. I love that. I think he'd give back the dunks if it meant going to the (NCAA) tournament. That's the attitude we need.''

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