South Florida has a fine women's basketball program with years of success, and the Bulls historically like to challenge themselves against top non-conference competition. Former coach Jose Fernandez took on all comers.
However, the gap between the top teams in the women's game and teams like USF seems more like a chasm now, so -- how can we put this politely? Maybe it's time for the Bulls to rethink how they want to approach this in the future.
No. 3-ranked South Carolina blew the Bulls off the Yuengling Center court Thursday night 103-44. That's on the heels of an 85-51 loss to top-ranked UConn, a 94-61 loss to No 4 UCLA, and an 87-58 loss to No. 13 Vanderbilt.
The Gamecocks weren't trying to run it up. They were just that much better.
"We only have nine players that are healthy. So there's no choice in that somebody that plays significant minutes is always going to be on the floor. But at the same time, we really aren't looking at the score," legendary South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said.
"We're actually looking at just how disciplined and playing to a standard for 40 minutes. And we haven't done that probably until today. I thought we were pretty locked in for 40 minutes. There were very little just lapses defensively when it came. I'm most proud of them because even the ones that don't play a whole lot, they were locked in and they were disciplined. So we're making progress."
The idea behind scheduling like that is to prepare the Bulls for American Conference play. But does losing by those margins prepare a team for anything? Going forward, maybe schedule one or two of those upper-crust teams instead of four.
"I really don't know what to say. We played this tough schedule. We played UCLA, we played UConn, we played Vandy, and now we played South Carolina. This was the first game I thought that we sort of got frustrated and gave up a little bit," USF interim head coach Michele Woods-Baxter said.
"And it's probably because it's the last one that we've played in so many. And we've just had a lot of new players who've never played even against a top 25 team. You know, and then this year they come in here and they get thrown in against, you know, one, two, three, and 13. So like I said, I thought we gave up a little bit on this game."
This isn't the first time the Bulls were shown to be out of their league against the top teams. The Bulls have played UConn 34 times in their history. They have lost 34 times, and most of the games weren't close, like last year's 86-49 win by the Huskies.
The Bulls won the American Conference tournament last year and advanced to the NCAAs as a No 12 seed. Their reward was a date with Tennessee and a 101-66 beating. To be fair, they have beaten Duke twice in the last two years.
With the spectacular growth in the women's game, you might think the gap between the top teams and everyone else would be closing. It all comes down to recruiting, though, and the best players are still going to schools that give them the best chance to turn pro.
Just look at the WNBA, where 80 percent of the players last season came from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, or Pac 12.
Yes, USF has had players in the WNBA, including first-round picks Wanda Guyton (1997), Courtney Williams (2016), and Kitija Laksa (2020). But since the league formed in 1997, nearly every No. 1 overall pick has been from a power conference, including six from UConn. The only two exceptions were players who played in Australia or France.
The Bulls are 6-6 -- a pretty good achievement considering the gauntlet they just endured -- and they are the preseason pick to win the American.
"We're telling them you need to let go and you need to move on because we probably wouldn't play another team like (South Carolina) until the NCAA tournament. But in order to get there, you know, we've got to come out strong and we've got to win our conference," Woods-Baxter said.
That is USF's other reality in this sport. The American is likely a one-bid league and even if the Bulls win the regular-season title, they would have to win the conference tournament to advance.
Like I said, USF is a solid, respected program with a history of success on its level. It's understandable why the Bulls might want to test themselves against the best.
But games like Thursday night make you wonder if playing against so many elite teams is the right thing to do.