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USF Men's Basketball Pre-Season Report 2023-2024, Part 2

The Foam Dome will have plenty of new players and new expectations this upcoming season in this multi part series looking at both the men's and women's program extensively before the season tips off

Author
Collin Sherwin
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    The American Athletic Conference announced their preseason coaches poll and honorees leading into the 2023-2024 collegiate basketball season. For USF men’s and women’s basketball, the addition of six new teams in UAB, FAU, North Texas, UTSA, Charlotte, and Rice coming into the fold replacing the departing UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati means there’s plenty of room for parity within the AAC.

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    In part one of this series, we took a look at the new men’s basketball staff and what the new coaches and support staff bring to the able. Today we will look at the new and returning players for USF men’s basketball, how they measure up, and what to expect from this group:

    USF Men’s Basketball: New Look Roster

    Roster Overhaul

    The rebuild wasn’t just designated to staffing, as Coach AAR also needed to rebuild his roster, which saw all but three players transfer out of the USF men’s basketball program. Those three players would not have been able to transfer without graduating first as Selton Miguel (Kansas State), Corey Walker Jr (Tennessee), and Sam Hines Jr (Denver) all had previously transferred into USF during their undergrad. These three played in at least 30 games last season each and bring a mixture of point scoring, rebounding, and assists to the new staff.

    First order of business was to keep some sort of continuity from AAR’s success at Kennesaw, he did this by bringing over three of his standouts from his historic run with the Owls. Chris Youngblood, Brandon Stroud, and Kasen Jennings all followed their head coach to Tampa. Between the three of them, Chris Youngblood brings the scoring and accolades, coming off a First Team A-SUN season last year and over 1,000 points scored so far in his collegiate career (averaged 14.7 points per game last season). Brandon Stroud brings the defense, being named A-SUN defensive player of the year, 165 defensive rebounds (220 total rebounds), along with 50 steals and a solid 9.2 points per game. Last but certainly not least from Kennesaw was Kasen Jennings, who was a pivotal bench player and eventual starter for the Owls. Jennings averaged 6.2 points per game, 29 steals, and 57 rebounds last season for KSU.

    Once AAR has his established familiarity with USF and his familiar KSU standouts, he turned his attention externally to find a mixture of transfers, high school, and JUCO players. From the transfer portal, the Bulls landed Jose Placer (14.0 points per game, 2.9 assists per game, 2.3 rebounds per game, All A-SUN Third Team) from UNF and Kobe Knox (5.3 points per game, 24 blocks, 17 steals) from Grand Canyon University. Knox is part of THE Knox Family in the Tampa area, that includes older brother Kevin II (Kentucky basketball, 9th overall pick in the NBA draft), father Kevin (WR at Florida State, National Champion, 6th round draft pick in the NFL draft), and younger brother Karter (consensus five-star basketball prospect, and potential future Bull).

    In the high school recruiting realm, AAR pursued two promising prospects, the first being Daniel Tobiloba from Grand View High School in Des Moines, Iowa, who had previously pledged to Kennesaw State before following his future coach to USF. Additionally, four-star player Jayden Reid from Long Island Lutheran HS in Westbury, New York also committed to USF.

    The final and busiest piece was on the JUCO route, where the Bulls grabbed three players with plenty of experience. Kasean Pryor is making the trek from Northwest Florida State to Tampa where he averaged 14.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per game as well as All-Conference honors. Next was David Ogunleye from Chabot College who averaged 8.6 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per contest. Lastly and at the last second, Gerald Jones III committed to the Bulls from Saddleback College where he averaged 7.4 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game.

    Roster Breakdown and Sizes

    The addition of Pryor, Ogunleye, and Jones III brought some much needed size to coach Amir’s roster, as the breakdown of positions, numbers, and sizes is below. This list also includes Walk-Ons designated with a *:

    • #0 Jayden Reid, Guard - 5'10" - 161 lbs
    • #1 Selton Miguel, Guard - 6'4" - 210 lbs
    • #2 Jose Placer, Guard - 6'1" - 184 lbs
    • #3 Chris Youngblood, Guard - 6'4" - 218 lbs
    • #4 Kobe Knox, Guard - 6'5" - 195 lbs
    • #5 Brandon Stroud, Guard - 6'6" - 215 lbs
    • #11 Kasean Pryor, Forward - 6'10" - 210 lbs
    • #13 Kasen Jennings, Guard - 6'3" - 202 lbs
    • *#14 Ammaar Balagam, Guard - 6'4" - 185 lbs*
    • #15 Corey Walker Jr, Forward - 6'8" - 215 lbs
    • #20 Sam Hines Jr, Forward - 6'6" - 215 lbs
    • #21 Gerald Jones III, Foward - 6'10" - 220 lbs
    • #22 David Ogunleye, Forward - 6'9" - 235 lbs
    • *#33 Nic Smith, Guard - 6'0" - 168 lbs*
    • #34 Daniel Tobiloba, Center - 7'0" - 238 lbs

    Looking through the roster, the Bulls have plenty of skilled guards who can bring multiple looks to the floor, there is also plenty of Division 1 basketball experience amongst that group of nine players. Five forwards should provide plenty of depth and unique looks, including Kasean Pryor and Sam Hines Jr, who play as a guard/forward hybrid, but the remaining three will need to act as a forward/center hybrid since the Bulls will only suit up one center (who is a true freshman) this season.

    The Bulls will be forced to play more small ball this season, a style of play that focuses more on speed, agility, and more importantly, scoring while sacrificing physical rebounding and brute defending. There will be disadvantages for USF when they face teams with larger and more physical players, but there will be many times that USF has the advantage on the floor with shiftier guard/forward play to out maneuver a slower opponent.

    Steeg’s Certified and Best Guess™️ at the starting lineup this year when the Bulls tip off in a few short days will be:

    • G - Selton Miguel

    • G - Chris Youngblood

    • G - Brandon Stroud

    • F - Kasean Pryor

    • F - Corey Walker Jr

    In the next and final part of this series for men’s basketball, we will take a look at USF’s schedule for the upcoming season and where the fellow AAC coaches had placed the Bulls in respect to the new look American Athletic Conference.