Rock, say hello to the bottom.
That’s where the USF men’s basketball team currently resides following Wednesday’s 77-69 home-court loss to Bethune-Cookman. The Wildcats were 2-8 coming into the game and had lost their previous four outings by a combined 73 points.
After trailing by as many as nine points in the first half, USF got its first lead with 17:12 left to play. Alas, the Wildcats went on a 13-0 run and never trailed again.
“I thought we did a good job coming out in the second half, but then we hit that low where, man, all right, we got the lead. Now it's all right, let's turn it on,” interim coach Ben Fletcher said.
“And it's like, man, just make the simple play. The simple plays are what got us back in that game.”
Those inclined to see the glass half full would recall last season when the Bulls lost to Maine, Hofstra, and U-Mass in December before catching fire and finishing with 25 wins. The half-empty crowd would look at the stats from this game and shake their heads.
The Bulls were out-rebounded, which shouldn’t happen.
They shot 36.7 percent from the floor, including a woeful 6-of-23 on 3-pointers. Jayden Reid, who has been clutch this season, was 4-of-11 shooting. Kobe Knox was 0-for-5 from the floor.
“I was shocked at the way we shot it, man, after shooting it so well the last few days,” Fletcher said. “I had a ton of guys in the gym the last few days getting a bunch of shots. I was stunned at the way we shot it. But the thing we can't do is let our offense dictate our defense, and we have to learn that.”
Hopefully they will learn that by 3 p.m. Saturday when East Texas A&M visits the Yuengling Center with its 2-10 record. The half-full crowd would say it’s a great opportunity to feel good again.
The half-empty view is, yeah, that’s what we thought about the Bethune-Cookman game.