BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: South Florida @ DePaul

March 3, 2007


DePaul has spent much of the season climbing uphill towards a NCAA Tournament bid and on Saturday they have a chance at their ninth conference win. In many seasons that is enough to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament out of the Big East, but this year it is more than likely that DePaul is on the outside looking in without at least two wins next week in New York City.

South Florida has failed to qualify for the Big East Tournament for the second consecutive season. The Bulls had a little run midway through the conference schedule highlighted by a win over Notre Dame, but nothing has gone their way since. They are still looking for their first Big East road win in their Big East history.

That initial road win is unlikely to come on Saturday. There is nothing more than sending out Sammy Mejia a winner that the DePaul fans and Mejia's teammates would like for on Saturday. South Florida matches up pretty well in the frontcourt with DePaul as big Kentrell Gransberry will give DePaul trouble inside and McHugh Mattis has the length and athletic ability to make things difficult on Wilson Chandler. However, the Bulls seem to struggle putting things together and to get a win on the road, they will have to put it all together in this one. Sammy Mejia and Draelon Burns form a formidable 1-2 scoring punch in the backcourt and if Karron Clarke and Jabari Currie have solid contributions, the Blue Demon balance will overcome any South Florida threat.

NBE Blogger Prediction: DePaul 69 South Florida 58