The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 230 is South Florida basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of South Florida basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 2
- Bids: 4
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 13.8
- Bids per season: 0.08
- AP Polls: 2
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 4
- Conference Players of the Year: 3
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 3
- Conference tournament titles: 2
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 1
Overall scoop on South Florida basketball
For years, the Bulls had really struggled to put together some consistent basketball. To be fair, good seasons in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s under Lee Rose, Bobby Paschal, and Seth Greenberg, combined with being in a big market in Tampa Bay, Florida, led to USF’s inclusion in the Big East in 2005.
Unfortunately, they weren’t cut out for a conference with so many powerhouses, finishing with a winning record just once in eight seasons, coming in 2011-12. That team, led by Stan Heath, went to the NCAA Tournament and won two games – a play-in round game against 12-seed Cal, and an upset of 5-seed Temple, before losing to 13-seed Ohio.
But when the Big East as we knew it collapsed, USF went to the American Athletic Conference. After a very rough decade, other than a random 24-win season in 2018-19, the late Amir Abdur-Rahim changed the culture. In his only season as head coach, the Bulls went 25-8, 16-2 in the American, and were even ranked as high as 24th in the AP Poll. However, they were left out of the NCAA Tournament.
However, two seasons later, this past season, Bryan Hodgson did an outstanding job, going 25-9 overall, 15-3 in conference, and led the Bulls to their fourth NCAA Tournament, falling in a close one to 6-seed Louisville.
The craziest fact about USF is that, despite having 21 winning seasons total, they’ve never had more than two in a row since 2003. That will be Chris Mack’s challenge as the program’s fifth coach in as many years.