After USF men's basketball completed its 90-62 destruction of Tulane on Sunday, Bulls coach Bryan Hodgson speculated that the team's NET ranking would climb into the 40s.
He was correct. The Bulls checked in Monday at a program-best No. 48. To give you some perspective, the breakthough 25-8 season crafted by the late Amir Abdur-Rahim two years ago only earned the Bulls a NET ranking of 78.
Early bad losses that season to weak teams, combined with a non-conference schedule strength of 149, couldn't compensate for winning USF's first regular-season conference title ever. And with the Bulls closing in on a second American Conference title -- they have clinched no worse than a tie for first -- revisiting this subject is timely.
The best way to explain how the NET works is this: Play the best schedule you can and keep your foot on the gas every game for 40 minutes.
That can lead to runaway scores like the Bulls produced Sunday, but it all factors into the NET, which is a major tool for the NCAA tournament selection committee to choose at-large teams and seedings. Letting up, especially this time of year, is not an option.
"In college basketball four or five years ago, when you get up 20, clear the bench, right? You don't see that anymore because we're evaluated until that final buzzer. So we want to continue to guard at a high level. 
We want to continue to take highly efficient shots," Hodgson said.
"I felt like we got a little bit away from that for about a minute and a half because of the lead that we had. So, I wanted to remind them what we were planning for. 
Obviously, we've got the highest NET in program history., but we needed to be higher. We need to be in the conversation. 
We're playing great basketball at the right time. And so we want to continue to improve those metrics across the board."
The 28-point win against a team with 17 wins helped the Bulls jump four spots in the NET.
A lot of other factors go into that as well.
The Bulls' non-conferrence strength of schedule ranks 17th. They have a pair of Quad 1 wins. Their RPI rating is No 32.
But even though the Bulls are 21-8 overall and 13-3 in the conference, they'll be nervous on Selection Sunday if they fall short in the league tournament. It's no fun living in bubble land when the big day comes.
Anyone who seriously pays attention to college basketball would agree that the Bulls pass the eye test to earn an NCAA at-large bid if needed. Leaving it to the NET metrics can be disconcerting.
With that in mind, I asked Hodgson if he would change the NET if he had the power to do so.
"No, I wouldn't. Because you know what? College basketball's hard. and reward the people that are good at what they do. I think the NET can be tricked a little bit. Some of these people don't play anybody in the non-conference and win every game by 25 and 30 and then they've got this NET ranking that's a little off. We went out and played a bunch of Quad 1 and Quad 2 games," he said.
"The games that we played were all that we could get to play. What I mean by that is we called every P4 school in the country (to try and schedule games). Alabama, with (head coach) Nate Oats, always agrees to play, We got Oklahoma State to play us. We called every school in the state of Florida. 
I don't need to list them off; we all know who they are. They all said no."
They're probably glad they did.