Wardrobe Malfunction Lone Highlight For Struggling Bulls
Published: Feb 3, 2008
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TAMPA - There have been many comical moments during the 37-year history of the University of South Florida men's basketball program.
Among them was former coach Seth Greenberg's "dog-tree" quote after a lopsided loss 11 years ago and Terrence Leather changing into street clothes at halftime and then watching the second half of a game from the stands five years ago.
Make room for Orane Chin. The freshman tried to enter Saturday's game against St. John's with his jersey on backward. With USF enjoying a double-digit lead, his teammates chuckled at Chin's wardrobe malfunction.
However, there was nothing funny about the Bulls' performance. In a battle of the Big East's last-place teams, USF was worse, losing 72-58.
"We're a struggling basketball team," USF coach Stan Heath said.
The Red Storm (8-12, 2-7 Big East) are only 3-31 in their past 34 Big East road games, but 2-0 at USF.
The Bulls (10-12, 1-8) lost their eighth consecutive game, but managed to set two school records. They built a 16-point first-half lead, their largest in a Big East game, which led to their biggest collapse in a Big East contest.
"It's hard to swallow," Heath said. "We wanted to get the monkey off our back. Early on, it looked like it was going to happen for us."
With 12:22 left, the Bulls led 19-9 when Chin came to the scorer's table to check in. When he removed his warm-up jacket, he discovered his jersey was on backward.
A few minutes later, the game also turned around.
With 8:06 remaining, USF led 25-9, but then watched St. John's end the half on a 17-1 run to pull even at halftime. During the St. John's run, the Bulls were 0-for-6 from the field and had five turnovers.
Despite playing without injured leading scorer Ron Mason Jr. in the second half, the Red Storm pulled away. With SJU up 46-45 with 7:25 remaining, the Bulls went the next five minutes without a field goal as the Red Storm went on a game-clinching 15-3 run.
After hitting nine of its first 17 shots, USF went 10-for-32 the rest of the way. The only worse shooting effort came from USF grad student David Kors, who had three halfcourt attempts as part of a USF promotion. Kors' first attempt hit the shot clock, and he air-balled the final two shots.
SJU, meanwhile, shot 66.7 percent in the second half.
USF freshman Dominique Jones had 24 points, while junior B.J. Ajayi had career highs with 12 points and nine rebounds. Senior Kentrell Gransberry added 10 points and a season-low tying six rebounds,
"Everyone got relaxed when we got the big lead, instead of 'Keep pushing it, keep pushing it,'" Jones said.
The St. John's bench outscored USF's bench 32-0.
"We didn't play hard enough to do what it takes to win," Gransberry said.
When the St. John's lead reached double figures, USF AD Doug Woolard was a poster child for how the announced crowd of 4,836 felt, with his elbows on his knees and his head buried in his hands.
"There's still a lot of games to play," Heath said. "I'm certainly not going to lie down, and I don't expect those guys to. It's a long road in front of us, we've just got to lace 'em up and regroup and get our confidence back."
And when the Bulls lace them up, they need to remember one thing: make sure their jerseys aren't backward.
INSIDE THE GAME
PLAYER OF THE GAME: St. John's F Justin Burrell had 22 points and seven rebounds.
STAT OF THE GAME: In its past eight league games, USF's football team (5-3) has as many Big East victories as USF's basketball team does in three years (5-36).
TURNING POINT: The final 28 minutes - SJU outscored USF 63-33.
UP NEXT: USF visits No. 6 Georgetown on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.
