USF men's basketball shakes off a tough loss by blowing out Coppin State

There was never any doubt about how the game between the USF men's basketball team and Coppin State was going to turn out Wednesday night. As expected, the Bulls routed the Eagles 100-50 at the Yuengling Center.

Do you really need more than the final score to tell you about USF's dominance against a winless (now 0-4) and hopelessly overmatched opponent? It was the Bulls' second time in the century total in three games, and they had 95 points in the other game. It was the second-largest win margin in program history.

USF is now 2-1 and headed to a game Sunday at Kennesaw State.

That is the start of the "Love Wins" series between the two programs in tribute of the late Amir Abdur-Rahim, who coached at both schools.

Wednesday's game was probably the kind of reset the Bulls needed after a tough 99-95 loss last Saturday against a very good George Washington team. In that game, USF's Joseph Pinion, who transferred from Arkansas State with head coach Bryan Hodgson, shot 1-for-13 from 3-point range and was 3-of-18 overall for 7 points.

Pinion didn't take long to put that game in the rearview mirror. He hit five 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 24 points, including 6-of-14 from 3-point land. He had 21 points in the first half. It was a solid answer to the haters who reacted to his play against George Washington.

"We're in a world with social media now where we've got Joe Pinion got threats in his email telling people, telling him he owe them money," Hodgson said before the Coppin State game. 'I got USF fans blasting me, saying that Joe Pena must have some dirt on me for me to allow him to stay out there and play the entire game

"That just tells me those people don't know a ton about basketball, because he actually was really good outside of the shots. In looking into our bench, we've got some freshmen who are finding their way. But I told Joe, keep shooting the basketball."

He kept shooting in the first half of this game and it was good for the Bulls.

"I wonder if all of our Twitter coaches want him to not shoot the ball anymore," Hodgson said on the Bulls postgame radio show, "He's built up plenty of equity with me as a shooter and taking the right shots and his IQ and so really happy for him to get to see the ball go in."

Pinion gave credit to his teammates.

"It really felt good to finally have my shot ball. But you know, because of my teammates," he said. "They kept finding me when I was open."

Pinion wasn't the only Bull to shine on this night, of course.

Izayah Nelson had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Daimion Collins had five blocked shots. The Bulls shot 52 percent from the floor.

"Tonight, we just needed to hold ourselves to our standard and make sure that we were playing our brand of basketball on both ends of the floor," Hodgson said. "So, pleased with the win, you know, just gotta go back to work."