2007 South Florida Basketball Picks & Predictions
While South Florida has put itself on the map on the gridiron, the basketball program is yet to catapult into the national spotlight. Jimmy Boyd’s 2007 South Florida Bulls season preview and NCAA basketball predictions will give you the skinny on this team’s chances for improvement.
The first two seasons in the Big East have been disastrous for the Bulls. That was enough to send Robert McCullum out and bring Stan Heath in. McCullum was just 10-54 in conference play in his four seasons at South Florida. The Bulls bring a 20-game losing streak in conference play into this season. South Florida has now placed its program in the hands of former Arkansas head man Stan Heath. Stan Heath will be regarded as a hero if he can get the Bulls to the Big East Conference Tournament, let alone the NCAA Tourney.
Kentrell Gransberry proved to be as good as advertised for the Bulls in just a half season last year. They’ll get him for a full season this year. The LSU transfer averaged 15.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game last season and we can expect this double double machine to continue his domination this year. But Gransberry was all the Bulls had and teams quickly figured that out. Heath is going to have to get Gransberry more frontcourt help so teams can no longer just key on him. The Bulls need junior Mobolaji Ajayi and freshman Orane Chin, both newcomers to the program, to step up right away.
Chris Howard has hopefully put his knee injury history behind him. He proved to be a capable playmaker in the 14 games he played last season averaging just under 6 dimes per game. Shooting guard Soloman Bozeman needs to become more consistent. He proved he can score in non-conference games, but the sophomore struggled in Big East play. He is a great foul shooter (15th nationally) who can benefit from taking the ball to the hole and drawing contact.
There’s no doubt that the hire of Robert McCullum improved the Bulls. South Florida is just 8-69 all-time against ranked opponents. McCullum was 4-12 during his reign with the other coaches 4-57. With South Florida playing in the Big East, they are going to see plenty of ranked teams every season and Stan Heath is going to have to find a way to beat them to put the Bulls on the map.
South Florida hasn’t been to the NCAA Tourney since 1992 and it’s going to be tough to reach that feat playing in this super conference. It will remain to be seen if Heath can bring the right guys in to make the Bulls a contender.
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