Most of us never had a field trip like this when we were in elementary school. A program-record gathering of 9,821 school children, teachers, and maybe a few regular USF women’s basketball fans filled the Yuengling Center Thursday to watch the USF women’s basketball team defeat Merrimack 62-43.
It was the special Education Day event, and “special” is the right word. With last year’s crowd of 9,574, Education Day has produced the top two crowds in program history and two of the top three women’s basketball crowds in the state of Florida.
Atmosphere? Terrific.
Quality of basketball? Not so much. That’s not me saying that, by the way. It was Bulls coach Jose Fernandez who appeared caught between two emotions: the joy of the event and getting his team to play the way he believes it should.
“These games don't (just) happen, you know,” Fernandez said. “Ge knows how I feel about him and the support that he has for our program, but this doesn't happen if it wasn't for the support of our athletic director, Michael Kelly.
“And there's a lot of there was a lot of people involved in regard in in our athletic department, assisting with this event, in packing bags, putting bags on seats, There's a lot of things and a lot of people to thank behind the scenes that people don't see to make something like this happen, you know, and I thought, you know, Shalyse (Caban, USF’s Assistant Director of Marketing), who is the lead on this, and takes a lot of pride in this event.”
But with defending national champion South Carolina looming next on the schedule on December 15, Fernandez wanted to see more cohesion from his team.
“It was ugly,” he said.
The Bulls led 51-26 after three quarters after holding the visitors to single digits in each frame, so it’s not like they were really tested. At this point, though, the Bulls are tested against the standard Fernandez expects them to keep, and that is lacking.
They had 18 turnovers — too many.
They shot only 12 free throws — too few.
“NCAA tournament teams that I've coached here, and I've coached a lot of them, we've been somewhere averaging between 18 to 24 (or) 25 free throws a game,” Fernandez said.
“Why don't we get to the line? Because our guards shy away from contact, right? And they don't. want to get to the cup, so we're a jump shooting team. We don't like contact, we don't like getting hit. That's gotta change.”
One thing that won’t change is the exhilaration from playing before a full house of screaming grade-schoolers and the impact that can have.
“An 11-year-old girl today, it's her first basketball game, and now she wants to play basketball. I know a lot of kids enjoyed being out of school today and having the field trip, but those are the stories that you want to hear,” Fernandez said.
“Or they run home and tell their their mom or mom or dad or aunt uncle, cousin. I had so much fun today. Can you take me to a USF basketball game, right? So those are the stories that you want to create, and then hopefully they had such a great time here, right? That they'll come back or dream of going to school here.”
USF is definitely on to something with this game. Maybe that 11-year-old girl will one day play for Jose Fernandez on Education Day and sink the game-winning shot. And maybe that inspires another young girl, and the cycle continues.
Days like this are more than a game. They are an investment, and it’s a Bull market.