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2008 South Florida Basketball Predictions & Season Preview

Written October 21, 2008 by Jack Jones

The South Florida basketball team hasn’t been good lately, winning just 7 games in their three years in the Big East conference. Head coach Stan Heath isn’t sitting around just hoping things will get better though, he’s been hitting the recruiting trail hard. There are eight newcomers this year make up for the six players that transferred away to other programs. It’s going to be tough for Heath to put this group together for a run at the conference title this year and BetUS has South Florida listed at 50-to-1 to do so.

You can count on South Florida not being as good inside without center Kentrell Gransverry, who twice led the conference in rebounding. Heath thinks his team as options at least. Gus Gilchrist was a high profile recruit when signed by Virginia Tech before transferring to Maryland. He then transferred from the Terps before playing a game to land with the Bulls. He’ll be kind of a wild card to go along with the 6′10″ Alex Rivas Sanchez, who proved to be a solid rebounder at the junior college level. Mobolaji Ajayi finally came alive at the end of his junior campaign, and he needs to have a productive senior year. A couple of freshman will have to contribute right away at power forward. More likely it will be Eladio Espinosa, but there is also the massive 300 pound Eugune Teague, Jr. that has potential as well.

Dominique Jones was a star as a freshman, putting up over 17 points per game. The problem is that he faded down the stretch, which came from playing 35 minutes per game, but Heath thinks he has the depth to keep his legs fresher later in the season. Chris Howard runs the point and did a pretty good job of distributing the ball on his way to 4.8 assists per game. Mike Mercer, the transfer from Georgia, could give this team a real boost when he becomes eligible in the spring. He was once an All-SEC freshman player who can score the ball. Jesus Verdejo and Gaby Belardo will add depth to the backcourt.

Final Analysis

This team hasn’t made the NCAA tournament in 16 years and probably won’t do so this season either, but the program is heading in the right direction. This team wasn’t real great in Conference USA so you know they weren’t going to compete in the first few years of a tougher league. However, this team now has some more talent, but they might need a few years to put it all together and climb the ranks. South Florida is listed at 500-to-1 to win the national title.

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