USF men's basketball are champions again after lopsided win over Tulane

Obviously, there was a celebration by the USF men's basketball team after the Bulls flattened Tulane 90-62 on Sunday to clinch no worse than a share of the American Conference championship. There was confetti in the dressing room, caps with "champions" emblazoned on the front, a t-shirts showing off what the team has accomplished.

And there was a trophy that will validate that for the second time in three seasons, the Bulls are regular-season champs of the American. Well, technically, they clinched no worse than a share of first place by winning their eighth straight game. They need one win in their final two games to clinch the title outright.

"These things don't come easy," USF head coach Bryan Hodgson said.,

'True enough. But the Bulls some of the best basketball in program history. And there is more work to do.

'This is phenomenal. We're excited, but we're not done. 
And first and foremost, I don't like to share. So we don't want to share this with anybody. We don't want anybody else in this league, hanging a banner. 
So we're going to go handle business in these next two games to make sure that that happens."

The Bulls are at Memphis -- the preseason American favorite -- on Thursday before closing out the regular season Sunday at home against Charlotte.

After starting 3-2 in the conference, the Bulls have run off 10 wins in 11 games. Their three conference losses are by a combined five points, including two overtime games.

Forward Izayiah Nelson, who transferred from Arkansas State after playing there for Hodgson, talked about why the Bulls have surged.

"We know our roles. A lot of us, a lot of last year, my last year (at Arkansas State), didn't know their roles or didn't want to play a role," he said.

That was evident in the second half against Tulane, The Green Wave had hung around for a while, but the Bulls steamrolled them in the second half.

In another era, Hodgson might have cleared the bench when the Bulls clearly had the game in hand. But in today's analytics environment, no coach is given that luxury.

"In college basketball four or five years ago, when you got up 20, clear the bench, right? So, we continue to guard at a high level," Hodgson said.

"We want to continue to take highly efficient shots. I felt like we got a little bit away from that for about a minute and a half because of the lead we have. So, I wanted to remind them what we were playing for."

Translation: So far, so good. But bigger goals are ahead.