Defense Wins (Two) Championships

USF did the double in men’s basketball: An outright regular season American Conference championship, and a tour de force performance in the conference tournament that left zero doubt. They weren’t just the best team in Birmingham, but they might have beaten an all-star team of the rest of the league.

Dezayne Mingo of Charlotte scored 35 points in what was the best individual effort of the tournament to that point against UAB on Friday. Against USF in Saturday’s semifinal he had eight points on 12 shots with one assist and two turnovers.

Kenyon Giles of Wichita State had 27 points against Tulsa on Saturday. But the best team in his conference held him to five points on 13 shots, with two assists and one turnover.

And most of those severe drop-offs were due to Wes Enis, who looked like Clyde Frazier, Mo Cheeks, or Gary Payton had gotten some arm tattoos. The former Division II star looked like a McDonald’s All-American, with 43 points himself over two days himself. But Enis could play 94 feet of full denial on his mark because of his teammates, who have been so on a string the last six weeks you wonder if Bryan Hodgson has vibe coded a defensive brain implant.

The blitzing of handlers on ball screens, with Izaiyah Nelson and Any USF Guard Goes Here pushing point guards so far backwards they almost turtled like Claude Lemieux. The chances of completing a pass out of a Bulls-imposed solitary confinement, with two monsters on one side and the timeline and sideline on the other, were about the same as having fun in Downtown Birmingham: Basically non-existent.

There’s more than one way to defend at the college level. You can have your big man drop on every ball screen, switch almost everything, and basically just deny any access to the paint. It’s often dull, but ask Randy Bennett’s Saint Mary’s and Tony Bennett’s Virginia: It can win plenty of games.

But that’s not what Bryan Hodgson is here to do. His players are in your shirt from the jump, yet also very ready to abandon you to help a teammate on the other side of the floor. And just when you think you’ve been left alone, another guy has come down to harass you as soon as you catch the ball. It’s not only high energy, it’s incredibly fun to watch.

The way USF is defending right now is as one of the best teams in the country. Period. Not “good for a mid-major” or “ooh look out they’re scrappy!” This is elite defensive basketball, and the Louisville Cardinals must be displeased with their NCAA Tournament opening draw.

The Bulls certainly didn’t start the season that way, but with the transfer portal being what it is and entire teams having brand new rosters each season, coaches and players have to fly the plane in the air. Hodgson and his staff have tweaked the scheme, but kept the team completely bought in to what’s being sold. And it shows the force and fire with which they compete on the more difficult end of the court.

I don’t count deflections, but I know they do, and I can only imagine how much that average has risen each week as the season continued.

So when Joseph Pinion picks up his fourth foul early, as he did against Wichita in the AAC Final, Isaiah Jones can come in and put on an elite clinic himself. His counting stat of seven rebounds simply undersells the difference he made with his size, speed, and lightning quick hands on Sunday. But against Louisville it might be Josh Omojafo or CJ Brown or Gavin Hightower. But it will be somebody.

While it might be the Enis threes and Nelson alley-oops from the dunker spot that get the fans attention, it’s the ten feet and ten arms working with what looks and feels like one brain that makes the Bulls special. And defense generally translates to the NCAA Tournament much better than the other side of the ball.

Louisville is a very good team. Former Bull Kaesan Pryor was nearly an all-conference performer in green and gold two years ago. And despite being healthy, he hasn’t scored for the Cards since Valentine’s Day of his super-senior season, and can barely get on the court.

But there shouldn’t be a lot of reasons for USF or their fans to be nervous. By the metrics they check in as the 40th best defense in the country via KenPom, but that also counts all the missed assignments, chasing of steals, and poorly angled rebounding from before MLK Day.

This ain’t the same ol’ South Florida, and this ain’t the same defense the Bulls were playing in November and December. USF has won 11 in a row for a reason, and can absolutely win their first NCAA Tournament game in 14 years for that same reason.

That reason is becoming an outstanding team on the other side of the floor. And the rest of the country will get to see on Thursday what Bulls fans have known all season.

It’s all about stops, not shots.

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