WOMEN’S BASKETBALL USF (6-6) VS. 9TH-RANKED DUKE (10-2)
TIPOFF: Saturday, December 21, 12 noon at the Yuengling Center
TV: ESPN2 with announcers Pam Ward, Stephanie White
LISTEN: Bulls Unlimited
Duke University women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson received widespread acclaim for the mantra she tells her team: “It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better.”
After a university staffer put out a short video on social media of Lawson repeating that message to her players, people flooded Lawson with notes and emails of thanks for those inspiring words.
Although those words are synonymous with Duke, they also apply to the USF Bulls as they navigated perhaps the most challenging non-conference schedule in the country. When the Blue Devils meet USF on Saturday at the Yuengling Center, it will complete a run against teams currently ranked second, fourth, ninth, and twelfth in the country.
The Bulls also scheduled two other teams that are currently receiving votes in the poll. The gauntlet was designed to prepare the Bulls for the upcoming American Athletic Conference schedule and, hopefully, the NCAA Tournament.
USF lost each of those games against ranked opponents, and there were games where the Bulls could have handled hard better.
However, USF’s game last week at defending national champion South Carolina was a positive sign that the Bulls were indeed stepping up to meet the challenge head coach Jose Fernandez put them through. After falling behind 18-4 midway through the first quarter, USF was outscored by just two points over the last 3 ½ quarters on the Gamecocks’ home court. The Bulls didn’t back down or let up against an opponent eyeing a second straight national title.
The challenge is to build on that and perhaps get an attention-grabbing win.
“We’re playing a very, very well-coached, physical, and talented basketball team,” Fernandez said. “I’m impressed with them on both sides of the ball. They have a team that can play long into March. I mean, yeah, they’re good. They’re very good.”
Fernandez believes by the time this season is over the Bulls can be very good as well.
“We’ll find out. We’ve always played a strong schedule and usually we've won two or three of these (in past years). You can't control what happened in the past. Regardless, I think everybody understands we're a lot better than a six-and-six ballclub. A six-and-six record doesn't concern me. Do you wish we had a couple of those games in our pocket? Definitely,” he said.
“We're going to be judged on how we do in the league and going to Dallas (for the AAC Tournament), and if we do really well in the regular season. But if you have a couple of those games in your pocket for the (NCAA) selection committee as quality wins” it would help.
Duke provides another opportunity for that elusive quality win, but it will be hard. We’ll see how USF handles it.