USF Part II

[Queens_NYC]

Saturday, February 11th, 2023
7:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+

The Bearcats (15-9 [7-5 AAC], NET #78, KenPom #61) look to get back to winning ways against USF (10-14 [3-8 AAC], NET #156, KenPom #139) this weekend.

Since the Bulls' 85-69 defeat to UC in Tampa, USF has beaten UCF (85-72) and ECU (71-63) at home and has lost at Temple (79-76 in OT), at SMU (82-80), and most recently at home to Memphis (99-81).

Other than a rough showing at Temple, where he shot 1-11 from the field, and a quiet 10-point performance against UC, Tyler Harris has played some of his best basketball of the season over the past 8 games. During that stretch he has averaged 21.8 ppg and has shot nearly 46% from 3 on high volume (over 9 attempts/game).

The Bearcats should also expect a heavy dose of 7-foot center Russel Tchewa who was limited to 8 points and 2 rebounds during 27 minutes of play in our first match-up, but has since averaged 10.6 ppg and 10.4 rpg over 36.2 mpg during USF's last 5 games.

The Bearcats will be without the services of Rob Phinisee who was recently ruled out for the season with a torn patellar.

There is no timetable yet for Viktor Lakhin's return.

 

[sedziobs]

Our offense was really good in the first game. We only committed 4 turnovers and got to the rim 27 times. If we can repeat that we won't miss Lakhin too much.

 

[sedziobs]

Once again the offense was really good, partly thanks to hot shooting in the second half, but also because we got to the rim 22 times and only had 7 turnovers. It was good to see Ody and Davenport have good shooting nights since those guys have been struggling.

DDJ has been a better passer lately. Through the first 16 games of the season he averaged 3.5 assists per game. Since then (over the last month) he's averaging 8 assists. He had 9 tonight.

 

[Queens_NYC]

We did a great job defending Tyler Harris (again), which was critical with Corey Walker scoring at will in the post.

Very glad to see Ody find his offensive rhythm over these past few games. If he can reliably gives us at least 8-10/night going forward, then that'll help take the load off DDJ and Nolley all the more so.