USF women's hoops focus turns to AAC tournament as makeup game at Tulane is canceled

The on-again, off-again, on-again USF women’s basketball game scheduled for Thursday at Tulane is off again – this time for good.

USF announced Wednesday that it is canceled because the game will have no bearing on seeding for the American Athletic Conference tournament.

The Bulls are 20-10 and are the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will receive a double bye. Their first game is on Monday, March 10, at 9 p.m. against the winner of the Tulane-Wichita State game.

UTSA is the top seed, followed by North Texas. The Bulls gave UTSA its only AAC loss and split with North Texas.

After two straight losses to close the regular season, USF has fallen to No. 73 in the NET rankings, a metric used to choose at-large teams for the NCAA tournament.

Simply put, it means the Bulls will have to win the AAC championship to earn a bid to the NCAAs.

The NET rankings have been a source of controversy all year. Teams in the American are generally rated lower than other conferences, mostly because of their strength of schedule. The NET also takes into account the margin of victory, rewarding teams that blow out their opponents.

The Bulls played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country and own a win over Duke, which was ranked No. 10 in the country at the time.

USF coach Jose Fernandez was asked if it would help the conference’s NET standing if other teams scheduled tougher opponents. He said it is more complicated than that.

“I think the NET is not a favorable tool for teams outside the Power 4 conferences. Those teams play maybe one or two strong non-conference games and then pay weaker teams $20,000. 25,000, or $30,000 to come to play them at home,” he said.

“They win all those games by 30 or 40 points, so they manipulate the NET that way. If every one of our teams in the American did that, we would also manipulate the NET. But we don't have the money. Our elite schools don't have the money to pay you $25,000 to come play at their place.”

With that in mind, Fernandez has consistently taken the opposite approach, scheduling tough non-conference opponents. The idea is to expose the team to top competition, hopefully preparing them for the post-season.

“You’ve gotta be strategic, where we the top 10, top 15, top 20 teams in the country. They'll play us,” he said.

“UConn, South Carolina, Louisville, Vanderbilt, Ohio State. I can go on and on and on. The P4 teams that won't play us are the middle and bottom of the pack in those conferences.”

With the schedule they faced this season, the Bulls should be prepared for whatever comes their way in the AAC tournament. Besides beating Duke, USF hung tough for 3 ½ quarters at South Carolina and played Louisville and Mississippi State to the wire.

Fernandez said the challenge next week is simple” “We have to win three games in three days.”