The basketball arena at North Texas is named the Super Pit, and the USF women’s basketball team would have to agree that they named it right. That’s because on Saturday afternoon, that place was the pits for USF, although there was nothing super about it.
The Bulls fell 72-65 to the Mean Green after being completely outplayed for three-plus quarters. USF trailed by 24 points with 8:58 left in the fourth quarter before a furious rally pulled the Bulls within eight points with 3:30 remaining.
Too little, too late.
There’s too much basketball left in the season to draw conclusions from one game, but we also can’t ignore the implications of a Lost Saturday for both the USF men’s and women’s teams.
While the women were falling behind by 12 at the half, 542 miles away the men were wrapping up a 73-70 loss to Tulane. It was the first American Athletic Conference loss for both teams, but already the men face a steep climb to return even to the NIT.
The Bulls fell six spots to 166 overall in the NCAA NET ranking, which is a key metric in choosing at-large teams for post-season play. The Bulls trail AAC members Rice (165), UAB (161), Wichita State (157), Temple (120), Florida Atlantic (97), North Texas (59), and Memphis (37) in the rankings.
That’s a lot of bodies to climb over. That loss to Bethune-Cookman is likely to hang around their necks all season.
The women are in better (but not great) shape in the NET rankings.
USF fell from 59th to 65th in the rankings, but the Bulls are still second among AAC teams, trailing only UTSA (59th). For what it’s worth, North Texas entered the game ranked 148th.
The Bulls have played three teams ranked in the NET Top 10 – South Carolina (2nd), UConn (3rd), and Duke (10th). Even if USF doesn’t win the AAC tournament, the win over Duke will play well when the selection committee gets together – provided there are no more games like Saturday.
The Bulls shot just 34.5 percent from the field and hit only four of 14 3-pointers. They didn’t have an answer for Tommisha Lampkin of the Mean Green, who poured in 29 points and was 7-of-10 from downtown.
She had only eight 3-pointers in her previous three games combined.
The Bulls also can’t afford to be outscored 40-18 in the paint, as they were in this game. That includes an 18-2 margin for North Texas in the third quarter.
Both USF teams will be back at home this week. The women face UAB on Tuesday and the men follow a day later, also against UAB.
Is it a tad bit premature to call these critical games?
Nah.