With tonight's game against South Florida, this Q&A with Ken over at SB Nation's great South Florida blog, Voodoo Five, is right on time. Check out Ken's answers to my questions below and be sure to visit Voodoo Five for my answers to their questions.
Cardiac Hill: The Bulls are a pretty veteran team with eight upperclassmen. At 13-10, were you expecting more from them or about what they've shown so far?
Voodoo Five: I wasn't expecting much this year to be honest. With a huge question mark at point guard and our extreme lack of depth in the front court, I was hoping for 12 wins. Freshman PG Anthony Collins has been a revelation at the point compared the Anthony Crater and Friends horror show from last season.
Toarlyn Fitzpatrick and Ron Anderson Jr. have each developed nicely and have been our most consistent players this year. Fitzpatrick has evolved into a post who can shoot from anywhere on the court and has been our best 3-point shooter by far this year. Ron has been a force down low and has become one of the best rebounders in the Big East. He's good for 3 offensive boards a game and has some pretty sneaky post moves.
Cardiac Hill: 13-10 and sitting in the upper half of the Big East. I think it's still safe to say there are some skeptics out there, though. They don't have any real impressive wins (though winning at Nova by 17 was solid). Personally, how sold are you on this team?
This year's team is a classic middle third squad. They'll take care of the bottom two thirds of the conference, but are most likely going to get blown out by the Marquettes and the Georgetowns of the league. Still better than hanging out with DePaul and Providence.
Cardiac Hill: South Florida really has a challenging schedule left, so the NCAAs are probably out of reach in my opinion. How do you see it? If not the NCAAs, what are their chances for an NIT bid?
I think the chances for an NCAA bid went away when we lost those early games to Old Dominion, Penn State, and Auburn. While its pretty awesome to see USF still on some of the Bubble Watch lists, the rest of the schedule is too tough to expect a 5-2 record needed to get on the right side of the bubble.
NIT on the other hand is a different story. Providence and Villanova are two games where we stand a really good chance of winning, and WVU and Cincinnati haven't looked great on the road. The Quest For 16 is alive and well, we just need to grab a win somewhere not expected.
Cardiac Hill: Augustus Gilchrist has had his share of ups and downs heading into the season. While his numbers haven't dropped significantly, he's averaging fewer points and rebounds, and is also shooting below 40% ... which for a 6'10" forward/center isn't real good. How would you characterize his season?
Standard Gus. At this point, we know what he's going to bring. Mostly staying far away from the post, throwing up jumpers from 15-17 feet and the occasional three from straight away. He's starting to get better when passing out of double teams and actually playing in the post, but if he makes his first couple of jumpers, all of that goes out the window.
Cardiac Hill: When we last spoke in the Q&A for the football game, you expressed some uncertainty about South Florida in the Big East. With the new additions, I personally think the Big East did as good a job as they could have. How are you feeling about the long-term viability of the league?
It's OK I guess. Of course it all depends on what happens next with the Big XII, but it looks like a decent conference with Boise coming aboard in 2012. Basketball won't be the same with Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse, but it'll still be one of the top 3 leagues in the country.
Cardiac Hill: How do you see Wednesday's game shaping up?
This isn't going to be a great game to watch for the neutrals. Both teams play great defense, and USF will want to slow this game down to a crawl. I think this one goes down to the wire and Pitt wins 65-63 in the cavernous Tampa Bay Times Forum.
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