Rough timing for reigning American WBB champion USF with the college season right around the corner. Fernandez has been the Bulls head coach since 2000.
Blazers vs Dores was in Birmingham.
Fernandez left USF interim Michelle Woods-Baxter quite an OOC sked. I count five AP Top 25 teams, including #1 UConn, #2 South Carolina, #3 UCLA, and #7 Duke. And the Blue Devils, Gamecocks, and Huskies are all making the trip to Tampa.
Waiting til I see us play, but at least on paper, I cannot see us finishing at the bottom of the league. Would make zero sense. On paper this is at least a mid tier team.
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We are much deeper and more athletic than in previous years. Even with the Igor team we did not have much of a bench. We should be able to go 9 deep with no issues. We pressed more than I have seen in years, plus we have several shooters which helps.
I would be surprised if we are not at least middle pack. We should know more on Sunday after the secret scrimmage with Liberty. I know we will not get much information, but some will flow out. Our schedule sets up nice on the front-end to build some confidence.
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Figured we had a closed scrimmage with NCW being the lone public exhibition. Liberty picked #1 in CUSA preseason poll, getting 11 of 12 first place votes. Also placed 3 on the all-conference team, although Simeon Cottle of #2 Kennesaw State (recipient of the other first place vote) got the nod for POY.
What? Shit. I wasn’t confident we’d get him but losing him to north texas
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SI PRESEASON RANKINGS
60 Memphis
73 USF
106 UAB
110 North Texas
118 FAU
125 Tulane
131 Wichita State
140 Tulsa
150 UTSA
158 CHARLOTTE
173 Temple
182 ECU
203 Rice
Really can’t take much from exhibitions anyways I don’t think. Coaches tinker with lineups too much so they can see who plays well together, etc. End of bench players get action even though they’ll only get garbage minutes in season. Just not a reliable source of info, in my opinion.
Tigers jumped out to a 28-13 lead and led 45-42 at halftime. With just over 17 minutes to go, it was UofM 51-46. Then #14 Arkansas closed on a 53-24 run before 9,500+ at FedEx Forum. Penny definitely has more work to do.
Seems like a strong start to this recruiting cycle for the league.
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Good to see some highly regarded commits after USF just lost out to Auburn for Caleb Williams and Tennessee for Manny Green.