BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: SOUTH FLORIDA @ DEPAUL

February 9, 2008


There is still plenty of basketball left to be played in the Big East this season, but it looks painfully obvious that South Florida is going to miss the Big East Tournament for the third consecutive time. DePaul, on the other hand, is struggling to keep their ship afloat as it continues to take on water after starting conference play 3-1.

As much as USF has struggled since coming into the Big East, their road struggles are reaching epic proportions, now at 0-21 lifetime away from home in the Big East after Tuesday's loss at Georgetown. Despite another loss, Stan Heath actually found positives from the game where South Florida led most of the 1st half and continued to compete for 40 minutes, something that their coach has not seen consistently during the year.

I do think South Florida is better than their record in the Big East indicates. They have a productive big man in Kentrell Gransberry who is a load inside and consistently posts double-doubles. They have an exciting scoring guard in freshman Dominique Jones, however, he is finding points much harder to come by in conference play. However, they continue to lack any consistent play from anyone else on the team. Point guard Chris Howard and wing Jesus Verdejo show glimpses, but they can not put things together in the same game or for any long stretches at a time.

The Blue Demons have some impressive athletes and they definitely pass the look test once again. Dick Vitale would term this team as an 'all-airport' squad because they look better in the terminal than they do on the court often.

South Florida has nearly nothing from the power forward spot and nothing behind Gransberry. The Blue Demons can attack this weakness with Mac Koshwal and Wes Green inside and they can comfortably go to a smaller line-up playing Karron Clarke and Dar Tucker on the floor together to use their athletic advantage. Draelon Burns is the DePaul scorer and Will Walker is progressing as instant offense off the bench. They also seem to be getting more consistent play from Cliff Clinkscales in running the show, but that seems to be a game-by-game decision by Jerry Wainwright.

An original thought of mine had this possible being the game that USF snaps their string of road losses. However, their lack of depth, especially up front, seems to play right into the hands of DePaul. Furthermore, their lack of dangerous shooter from the perimeter makes stealing one on the hands of a hot shooter even less likely.

NBE Blogger Prediction: DePaul 70 South Florida 60