Our team preview style has been heavily cribbed from the microsite writers over in the Pac-12. We love them and assume they would take our attempt at loose imitation as flattery and not plagiarism.

South Florida

Strengths: Length. This season’s roster features 10 players listed at 6’5” or taller, and seven of them are likely to either start or play major minutes. While height alone won’t win this team any games, its improved length and athleticism are exactly the properties necessary to successfully run the stingy, opportunistic style of basketball Stan Heath teaches. Those upgrades are most apparent among Heath’s younger players. Scoring 10 or more points five times in league play, 6’7” rising sophomore Zach LeDay showed considerable promise in the latter portion of his freshman campaign, culminating in a 13-point, 15-rebound, five-block performance in his first and only Big East Tournament game. Classmate Javontae Hawkins (6’5”, 202 pounds) is a talented scorer who is likely to move into a starting role in the Bulls’ backcourt, provided he can beat out former JuCo transfer Musa Abdul-Aleem (6’5”, 221), a deep threat whom CBS Sports recently dubbed one of the country’s “under the radar” breakout players.

Anthony Collins remains the key to making a young team click (Kim Klement/USA Today)

Complementing those talented sophomore and productive veterans Victor Rudd and Anthony Collins, USF adds the most promising recruiting class in the program’s history. In particular, Stan Heath will benefit from the addition of four-star post players John Egbunu and Chris Perry. Egbunu should start from day one, while Perry could quickly earn a significant role based on his rebounding prowess alone. Heath also went out and solved his problems with point guard depth by adding junior college guard Corey Allen Jr., who looks every bit the serviceable floor general the Bulls lacked last year any time Collins stepped off the court.

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After starting the year at #14 in Big East preseason coaches poll, the USF Bulls went an astounding 12-6 in conference last year and earned a berth in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, the school’s first in 20 years. The Bulls went on to defeat Cal in one of the First Four games and Temple in the Round of 64 before losing to the upstart Ohio Bobcats in the next round, but overall, last season was a year of almost unprecedented success for Bulls basketball. The school loses a few key players this year, but they’re getting much more respect this preseason with a #8 spot in the 2012-13 preseason coaches poll.

2011-12 Record: 22-14, 12-6

2011-12 Postseason: NCAA Tournament (Third Round)

How will Stan Heath’s young Bulls squad respond to increased expectations in 2012-13?

Schedule

The Bulls should be able to compile a number of wins before entering Big East play as their non-conference schedule is not the most daunting. USF opens with rival and future Big East foe UCF at home on November 10, before returning the favor with a road game in Orlando right before conference play opens in a rare non-conference home-and-home series. USF also takes on Georgia and George Mason at home and Oklahoma State on the road. In conference play, USF has home-and-home series with Villanova, Louisville, Marquette, and Connecticut.

Who’s In

USF brings in a lot of new yet experienced faces to plug in some holes this season. Senior forward Kore White should see immediate playing time in the frontcourt. The 6’8″, 241 lb. White transfers in from Florida Atlantic where he averaged 7.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in just over 23 minutes per game last season. Guard Martino Brock is also eligible to play after sitting out a year following his transfer from South Alabama, where he scored 14.2 points per game two seasons ago. Sophomore Musa Abdul-Aleem comes in from Georgia Perimeter College as a junior college transfer. Both Brock and Abdul-Aleem are big (6’5″) and physical guards, which should allow them to fit in well in the rugged Big East conference. Both are expected to see a lot of playing time due to their defensive contributions.

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While most relish the onset of Summer, college basketball junkies do not. Most of the news surrounding the sport is recruiting rumors and commitments or injuries and transfer news. In order to help keep folks up-to-date on what their teams are doing during the summer, we put together these summer capsules for each team in the conference. Next up is South Florida.

1. Who is ready for the next wave of junior college players?

Bulls’ coach Stan Heath loves junior college players. It’s not a secret. The former Arkansas boss has the South Florida program headed in the right direction primarily because of his willingness to recruit junior college players. Three members of last season’s NCAA Tournament team came from the juco ranks, including leading scorer Jawanza Poland. So it should come as no surprise that two of his four incoming recruits are from the junior college ranks, including center Waverly Austin, who was generally regarded as the top juco big man in the class. The other junior college recruit is Musa Abdul-Aleem, a physical wing and one-time Florida State commit who should at least see some playing time and will add depth. The Bulls lost their two best interior players from last season when Gus Gilchrist and Ron Anderson graduated, so you can bet that Austin will get every possible chance to establish himself as the team’s starting center and his contributions will go a long way to determining whether the Bulls will make it back to the NCAA Tournament. Heath has found plenty of diamonds in the rough while mining the junior college ranks, and if Abdul-Aleem and Austin can be the next in line than Heath may have found a consistent winning formula for a long-dormant program.

2. Victor Rudd Jr. may be the team’s best player, but this is Anthony Collins’ team.

Stan Heath Boasts One Of The Conference’s Best Point Guards In Anthony Collins (AP)

One of the main reasons that South Florida was able to even make the NCAA Tournament last season was because of the play of their mercurial freshman point guard, Anthony Collins. The Texas native missed the first two games of the season but quickly established himself as the team’s top ball-handler and playmaker after that. In the last 10 games, Collins played some of his best basketball, averaging 13.9 points and 5.2 assists per game, including a 22 point, six-assist effort in a win over Pittsburgh. Of course, he turned the ball over at prodigious rates, but that was at least partially because he was a freshman who was basically asked to create offense for the rest of his team, so those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Now he has had a season to adjust to Big East play and learn the nuances of the point guard position, so you can expect Collins to make a leap toward stardom this season. He isn’t the best shooter and won’t ever be a high-volume scorer, but he is extremely dangerous when he attacks the rim and he could emerge as one of the best distributors in the conference as soon as next season. Victor Rudd, Jr. is a versatile forward who may lead the team in scoring and rebounding next season, but there should be little doubt that Collins’ development will be instrumental in the Bulls’ success.

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