USF basketball's dominance exposed FAU and showed how good the Bulls can be

Florida Atlantic basketball coach John Jakus had an interesting thing to say after the beat-down USF put on his team Sunday at the Yuengling Center.

Thank you, Bulls.

You don't often hear that from the losing coach, but Jakus seemed sincere.

"The film that USF gave us is probably one of the greatest gifts we could have," he said in his post-game remarks.

His Owls came into the game leading the American Conference, but the Bulls battered them in the second half to pull away for an 89-75 win that put the league into a virtual five-way tie for first place. Florida Atlantic technically still leads the American, but this setback meant the top five teams have two conference losses apiece.

 "I should almost thank them because they exposed some things on us that, clearly, we thought we had fixed, and we're not there yet. Our free-throw margin was a minus eight. Our offensive rebound points were minus-11, which I never saw coming, to be frank, after the way we played the last couple weeks," he said.

"Fast break, we were minus 12, we were almost thankful that we were gonna play somebody who was finally courageous enough to run with us. Frankly, our guys didn't do their job."

But one man's horror show was, in this case, another coach's dream. What USF's Bryan Hodgson saw was a team that, in the final 20 minutes, blew the doors off of one of the best teams in the league. A common reaction on Sunday was that this game could be a preview of the conference tournament championship game.

It just took USF a little while to get there.

"Thought we were just, I mean, to be honest with you, just horrendous in the first half," Hodgson said. "I don't know what it was, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat things. It was bad."

How bad?

The Bulls shot 12-of-35 from the field in the first half, including 2-for-13 on 3-pointers, They had nine turnovers in the first half, and point guard CJ Brown had four of them.

Second half? Different story.

The Bulls hit 18-of-33 shots for a sizzling 54 percent. Wes Enis hit four 3-pointers. The Bulls committed only turnover in the final 20 minutes. They finished with 29 second-chance points, thanks to a 49-35 rebounding edge that included 21 offensive boards.

What happened to cause the turnaround?

"We had a little bit of a come-to-Jesus meeting in the locker room at halftime," Hodgson said. "We talked a lot of things on both sides of the ball, and give credit to these guys, 'cause they went out and executed everything we asked them to in the second half, on both sides."

The result was a jump of seven spots in the NET rankings, a tool the NCAA selection committee uses to determine at-large bids and seedings for March Madness.

So, as January winds down and the conference race shifts into overdrive, the question we ask is this: How good are the Bulls?

They have convincing wins over two of the top teams in the American -- Tulsa and Florida Atlantic. They. blew out long-time nemesis UAB on the road. The defensive lapses that showed up in the first UAB game — a double-overtime loss — and in the single-overtime loss to Wichita State have been addressed and seem corrected.

Hodgson can go deep into his bench, depending on the situation. Izayiah Nelson, who was named the American Conference Player of the Week on Monday, is playing like an MVP. He leads the conference in rebounding -- he had 12 boards against the Owls. He is also hitting 60 percent of his shots, which leads the conference. Daimion Collins is giving the Bulls valuable minutes off the bench and combines with Nelson to form a formidable inside tandem.

USF is the highest scoring team in the conference.

The Bulls' next two games are on the road -- at Tulane followed by Temple. They have already proven they can win on the road. Three of their five conference wins have come on the other team's home court.

So, yes, coach Jakus. On Sunday, USF exposed some things about your Owls that you will need to address.

Maybe the Bulls did something else, though. Maybe they also showed how good they can be.