USF women ready to begin quest for AAC title, NCAA basketball tournament berth

The highly anticipated season for the USF women’s basketball team begins at 6 p.m. Monday against Bethune-Cookman at the Yuengling Center.

The game will be televised on ESPN+.

This is one of two games this week for the Bulls before they head to UConn on Sunday, November 10, to face the 2nd-ranked women’s team in the land. That’s the first of USF’s ballyhooed non-conference schedule, including defending national champion South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Mississippi State, and Duke.

It’s designed to give the Bulls a better strength-of-schedule look come NCAA Tournament seeding time.

"We need to play these types of games in November and December to show we are a strong program at the end of the season. Seeding is important,” Fernandez said. “If we don't happen to win the conference tournament, we want to show we've done a good enough job to schedule this way, play well in these games, and hopefully win some of those games.''

USF was 19-14 last season, which would make many teams ecstatic. However, Bulls head coach Jose Fernandez, who begins his 25th season with USF, has repeatedly said that’s not the standard set for this program.

The Bulls missed the post-season in 2023-24 for the first time since 2011 in a non-COVID year. Injuries played a major role in the problems, but they enter this season healthy with a roster ready to return the Bulls to prominence that would include an NCAA tournament bid.

Start with Romi Levy, a 6-foot-3 wing player who is the American Athletic Conference preseason Player of the Year.

Mama Dembele joined USF from Missouri through the transfer portal. She’ll run the point at a breakneck pace. There is Vittoria Blasigh, last year’s AAC Freshman of the Year.

Sammie Puisis, a 6-1 guard, returns from a serious knee injury that cost her nearly all last season. She is a long-range shooting threat and was the AAC Newcomer of the Year in 2022-23.

“I think that's the deepest I've ever been here in 25 years, having five kids that can come in and play, shoot the ball, handle the ball, and create off the bounce. So I think that's where our strength lies.”