Vermont @ South Florida: The Inside Word

Though the University of Vermont and the University of South Florida are at opposite ends of the east coast, the two teams will collide on Saturday in what should be a dynamite first game of the year. The Catamounts will get a shot at a lower-tier Big East team. The Bulls will get a defending-conference-champion mid-major school at home. While USF undoubtedly has the edge, neither team could ask for more out of a season opener. 

If UVM wants to pull off the upset, they're gonna have to get to know their opponent. That's what we're doing here at Unranked, by having a little Q & A session with Ken DeCelles of Voodoo Five, the premier USF sports blog. 

You can read the questions we answered for Ken here.  

It really helps that pretty much everyone is back from last season.

Losing Jarrid Famous down low will hurt us depth wise, and Anthony

Crater was kicked off the team due to the dreaded "Violation of Team

Rules", but I think it is more addition by subtraction. Jawanza Poland is

missing the non-conference part of the schedule due to a back injury,

but there are some quality pieces in place this year.

 As for Heath, I think he will be around no matter what next year.

He's been thrown between a rock and a hard place recruiting-wise when

it comes to our lackluster facilities. With the 50,000 sq ft Muma

Basketball Center finally open and the Sun Dome getting a complete

makeover, Heath has already grabbed a couple of quality recruits this

fall. If Stan is able to find a good post player in the spring, it

could shape up to be one of USF's best recruiting classes in the

program's history.

 

With football I don't think much changes. If the 6 teams that have

been rumored to be coming (Boise State, UCF, Air Force, Navy, SMU,

Houston) are actually invited, USF will be a part of the weaker

Eastern Division. It'll still be tough to get out of there, but at

least we wouldn't be taking on Boise State and possibly BYU every

year.

Basketball-wise I think USF could see their role in the conference

improve. Its hard to replace three schools like Pitt, Syracuse,

and West Virginia, and the three proposed

full-members aren't that good in basketball right now. If everything

works out, you could see USF jump into that middle tier of the

conference that will compete for the occasional NCAA bid while at

least aiming for the NIT. Still have to wait to see how it all shapes

up though.

As much as everyone will hate me for this, I have Blake Nash as the

top player. In hindsight I should have had Nash, LaVonte Dority, and

Anthony Collins merge into one super player, but we need at least one

of those three to be excellent for USF to succeed this year. We saw

Anthony Crater consistently put our posts out of position with his

terrible entry passes and horrible decision making, and that has to

change if USF is to succeed this year.

As for the scoring, I think wings Victor Rudd and Shaun Noriega will

pick up the slack. Heath has been gushing about Rudd since he arrived

on campus as a transfer from Arizona State, and has even said he's the

second most talented player he has had -- second, of course, to Dominique Jones. He'll cause

a big matchup problem at 6'8", as he is an excellent shooter, but can

move with the ball as well.

Noriega has slowly emerged as the Bulls first legitimate three point

shooter in almost a decade. Shaun made 41% of his three-pointers

during Big East play last year, and if he can continue that this year it

will give guys like Gilchrist and Ron Anderson Jr. the space they need

to work in the post.

 

It was a little disappointing. Nash and Collins will definitely be in

the point guard rotation, and should each log 10-15 minutes in the

non-conference schedule. Collins has impressed everyone during fall

camp with his defensive tenacity, and that will always get you a few

minutes on the court with Heath. His offense is still coming along,

but as long as he can distribute the ball efficiently, Heath can

overlook his lack of scoring.

We had some trouble with our posts, as Jordan Omogbehin and Andre

Jackson were each denied eligibility by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Omogbehin was able to obtain a waiver to stay on campus, but the waiver

stipulated that he had to redshirt this year. Jackson, on the

other hand, had to scramble to find a place to land and finally ended

up at Cal State-Bakersfield. This leaves us with only three

scholarship post players on the roster, and Heath will have to go small at

some point during each game.

 

I love the name Jawanza. Although you won't see him Saturday, he can

jump out of the building, and it's always fun to yell JAWANZA! when he

throws a monster dunk down. Although, Four is so awesome and random

that you can't really go wrong with either.

Agreed. See you out there, USF.