Bulls Basketball Newsletter: USF clinches a share of the American regular season title

USF stifles Rice en route to program history

On Wednesday, the Bulls defense was so suffocating you could say they were on the Owls like white on rice. Or maybe it was green and gold on rice.

The South Florida Bulls rolled to a 75-56 win against the Rice Owls at Tudor Fieldhouse on Wednesday night.

The 56 points Rice scored are the fewest the Bulls have allowed against a Division I opponent this season.

USF forced 23 Rice turnovers and had 17 steals in the game. The Bulls scored 27 points off those turnovers.

The 23 turnovers, combined with USF’s 15 offensive rebounds, led to the Bulls having 19 more field goal attempts than Rice.

Senior forward Izaiyah Nelson had a game-high 24 points and eight rebounds. It was Nelson’s eighth 20-point game this season. He had just four 20-point games in the first three years of his career combined.

Three other Bulls scored in double figures. Senior guard Joseph Pinion had 15 points, and senior forwards Josh Omojafo and Isaiah Jones had 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Freshman guard Cam Carrol led the Owls with 13 points. Junior forward Jimmy Oladokun Jr. added 12 points.

The loss dropped Rice to 11-17 overall and 5-10 in league play. The Owls have now lost three games in a row.

USF’s win brought it to 20 wins on the season. It is just the eighth time in program history the Bulls have reached that mark. The only other time USF reached 20 wins in the regular season was the 2023-24 season.

The Bulls also tied the 2023-24 team with their eighth road win this season. They will have a chance to set the program record next week at Memphis. USF is 7-1 on the road in league play.

They traveled back home with a chance to make some more history on Sunday.

USF routs Tulane, clinches share of American regular-season title

The goal was always clear for Bryan Hodgson and the South Florida Bulls in his first year at the helm.

“I recruited every single player with this vision,” Hodgson said after the game, with the American Conference regular-season trophy perched on the table with him at the postgame press conference.

The Bulls clinched a share of the American Conference regular-season title with a resounding 90-62 win over the Tulane Green Wave on Sunday. It’s just the second regular-season title in program history.

“When I got here I said it to anyone who would listen that we were going to get one of these,” Hodgson said about the title.

The win was USF’s seventh in a row and its 10th in the last 11 games.

USF recorded its seventh 20-plus-point win of the year against Tulane, the most in a season in program history. The Bulls reached the 90-point mark for the 14th time this season.

The Bulls were led by junior guard Wes Enis, who scored 25 points. It’s the 10th time Enis has scored 20 points this season, the most on the team.

USF seized control down the stretch of the first half. The Bulls outscored the Green Wave 22-10 and held Tulane without a field goal over the final 8:28 of the half.

The Bulls dominated the paint, outscoring Tulane 42-14 down low. USF assisted on 22 of its 30 made field goals.

Forward Izaiyah Nelson recorded his 18th double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds against the Green Wave. Nelson has the second-most double-doubles in the country this season. On Sunday, Nelson became one of just five active players with at least 1,300 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

Tulane junior guard Curtis Williams Jr. had a game-high 27 points. Redshirt junior guard Rowan Brumbaugh had 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting. Brumbaugh, who came into the game as the American’s third-leading scorer and the preseason conference player of the year, has been held to 23 points on 9-of-28 shooting in two games against the Bulls this season.

USF senior forward Josh Omojafo recorded his third double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The win means the Bulls are 5-0 against opponents they have already played. When I asked their success in rematches, Hodgson’s answer was simple: “I have the best coaching staff in the country.”

USF’s success against foes it has already played will be crucial when the Bulls travel to Birmingham for the American Conference tournament — a tournament the Bulls will likely have to win to make the NCAA Tournament. Sunday’s win moved USF up to No. 48 in the NET rankings, but major bracketology outlets still have the Bulls a ways away from the right side of the bubble.

USF senior forward Damion Collins missed the game with an ankle injury he sustained against Rice earlier in the week. Hodgson told the Bay Area Examiner that Collins is “day-to-day,” and the team hopes to have him back for Thursday’s matchup against Memphis.

The win and celebration were tempered for the Bulls after the game.

“This is phenomenal and we’re excited, but we’re not done,” Hodgson said. “We’ve got more goals and we’re going to continue to work every day to obtain those goals.”

Hodgson became just the 10th coach in the past 15 seasons to win back-to-back regular-season conference titles with two different teams.

The win secured a triple bye to the semifinals of the American Conference tournament for the Bulls. USF needs just one more win or one more loss by Wichita State and Tulsa to secure the regular-season title outright.

“We were coming here to win this,” Nelson said after the game. “We had this on our checkbook, and we’ll check it off and we’re off to the next.”

Up next on the checklist is USF’s final road trip to Memphis on Thursday night. Then comes senior night and a postgame celebration for the regular-season title next Sunday against Charlotte.

Checking in around the American

This week is the final week of regular-season play, and for many teams it carries high stakes.

This season, the American Conference is implementing a new conference tournament format in which only the top 10 teams in the standings will head to Birmingham.

Four teams are within a game of each other in the standings and are jockeying for the final three spots in the conference tournament: Tulane, North Texas, Temple and Memphis.

For Memphis, bad has become worse. The Tigers have lost six straight games and are 12-17 overall this season. Memphis will have to halt its streak at home against the conference’s top team Thursday night, or it could be in jeopardy of missing the conference tournament altogether. The Tigers will also take on Tulane on Sunday in what could be a win-and-in game for both teams.

Tulane and Temple will match up Thursday night in Philadelphia in a game with major conference tournament implications. The Owls will travel to Tulsa in their final game of the season Sunday.

North Texas has just one game this week, Wednesday at home against Rice.

Another big storyline this week will be the battle for the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. Wichita State has a half-game lead over Tulsa in league play. The Shockers have one game left, while the Golden Hurricane have two. Wichita State hosts FAU on Saturday. Tulsa travels to East Carolina on Thursday and hosts Temple on Sunday.

The teams split the season series. If they finish with the same conference record, the Shockers would get the No. 2 seed because of their 1-1 record against USF, compared with Tulsa’s 0-2 record against the Bulls.

The Nos. 4 through 7 seeds — UAB, Charlotte, FAU and Tulane — are all separated by a game. Seeding will be crucial as every team plays for the grand prize: a spot in the Big Dance.

It’s March, baby.