Big East vs. WAC? A few numbers ...

As you can tell, I'm spending a decent amount of time on Twitter.com -- up to 465 followers, so I'll give a shoutout to No. 500 when I get there -- and I like that you can go to search.twitter.com and see what people are saying in real time about USF, or the Big East, or "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."

So anyway, here's a tweet I read on Friday: "Other than 1 conference having 3 teams that should be in D2 and other being in NYC, what's the difference between Big East and WAC Football?" Then a follow-up: "Combine the teams from the past 5 years: West Virginia-Boise St, who you got? Fresno State-USF? Hawaii-Louisville? Nevada-Rutgers?"

So I figured I'd do the research and see how the Big East and WAC compare. I used the past four years, since the Big East had different teams in 2004. I think the easiest criteria that the two conferences share would be nonconference games against BCS teams. Yes, the WAC probably has a higher percentage of those on the road than the Big East, but it should be a relevant statistic.

The Big East's record against other BCS conferences (and Notre Dame) since 2005? It's 38-39, including a 19-18 mark in the past two seasons. The WAC? In the same span, the WAC has a 13-62 record against BCS opponents, including a 7-30 mark in the past two years. So the Big East has fared nearly three times better against comparable competition.

How many Big East teams have a .500 record or better against other BCS league teams in that span? Five of the eight -- West Virginia is a stellar 10-2, Louisville 9-3, USF 5-5, Rutgers 4-4 and Connecticut 4-4. The rest are Pittsburgh at 3-6, Syracuse at 2-10 and Cincinnati at 1-5.

How many WAC teams have a .500 record against BCS opponents since 2005? Zero. Boise State, the league's best offering, is 3-4 against BCS teams. Fresno State is 4-8, including a great 4-3 record in the past two seasons. And Hawaii is 3-10, though its record was 0-4 in 2008. The rest of the league? Not so good: San Jose State is 1-7, Nevada 1-8, Louisiana Tech 1-9, Idaho 0-8, New Mexico State 0-4 and Utah 0-4.

And in the past two seasons, Fresno has more wins against the BCS (four) than the rest of the WAC combined -- the other teams are a combined 3-27. The WAC has done a good job of consistently putting a team in the top 10 late in the season, albeit against a lesser schedule than teams in BCS leagues. I don't know if that puts the league on par with any of the BCS conferences.

Probably won't have a post until Sunday, so I hope everyone has a good, safe 4th of July ...

Ex-Bull McDonald gets shot with NBA's Bucks

Former USF center Will McDonald, who has played professionally in Europe since 2003, is taking a step toward playing in the NBA and will play on the Milwaukee Bucks' team in the NBA summer league in Las Vegas starting next week.

McDonald, 6-foot-11 and 255 pounds, considered playing for the Bucks two years ago but instead signed a lucrative contract with TAU Ceramica, a top European team in Vitoria, Spain. The 29-year-old averaged 9.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game for TAU Ceramica this past season.

McDonald played for the Bulls from 2000-03 and was the team's leading scorer and rebounder in 2002-03, averaging 15.9 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. The summer league in Las Vegas runs from July 10-16. Here's the official release from the Bucks' site.

Sporting News puts USF football at No. 32

This week's Sporting News ranks all the Division I-A football teams from 120 to 1, and as fans wait for other summer countdowns to get high enough to rank the Bulls, USF turns up No. 32 in TSN's rankings.

The magazine quotes Pitt defensive end Greg Romeus as saying "USF, like the entire Big East, is underrated but will prove themselves this year." USF is the second-highest team in the Big East, trailing only Pittsburgh at No. 28. The Bulls are followed by West Virginia (39), Rutgers (43), Cincinnati (46), Connecticut (58), Louisville (73) and ... Syracuse at 106.

Other teams on USF's schedule? Florida State is No. 17, Miami is No. 30 and yes, Western Kentucky is No. 120. Other state teams include Central Florida (83), Florida Atlantic (85) and Florida International (115). TSN's online rankings only go up to the 60s so far ...

-- I don't know that I necessarily look to Missouri for Big East insights, but the Columbia Daily Tribune's Dave Matter makes his Big East predictions, and has USF finishing fifth. He has West Virginia winning, and I think the media preseason poll will go the same way, just because they're a consistent winner in a jumbled mass at the top of the league. He names USF's George Selvie as his Big East defensive MVP.

Notes: FSU puts USF tickets on sale today

USF fans have already gobbled up a big block of tickets for the Bulls' Sept. 26 game at Florida State, and Bulls fans have another chance to get a seat as the Seminoles put single-game tickets on sale at 6 p.m. today. (It originally was scheduled for 3 p.m. but has been pushed back.)

USF sold out its initial allotment of 5,000 tickets, then got another 2,500 tickets and went through them as well, getting a third allotment of 1,000 tickets last week. Fans can still get tickets through USF's ticket office, as some of the final allotment remains available, but the ticket office is closed today for the holiday weekend. Fans can get tickets directly from FSU for $49 each plus fees -- for more information, visit Seminoles.com.

-- ESPN.com's Pat Forde ran through his top college basketball rivalries on Thursday, with Louisville-Kentucky topping the list of the former Louisville Courier-Journal columnist. Aside from that, the Big East only made it in the top 10 with Villanova-Pittsburgh, and to add insult to injury, Forde included Rutgers-Seton Hall as an honorable mention.

That nod spawned some funny posts on Twitter.com -- "Is the seton hall rutgers game exciting only because your not sure whether or not your car will be on blocks when you come out?" wrote Syracuse fan Moiso13. He suggested to Syracuse blogger Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician that the pairing might as well be USF-DePaul. NunesMagician's reply? "for my money, it doesn't get any better than USF-DePaul in front of 5k in Tampa. That's Big East basketball!"

-- What's a carcajou? It's basically a wolverine. And Michigan blog When Carcajous Attack has a comprehensive rundown of quarterbacks coach Rod Smith's history with young quarterbacks, including his time at "South Florida University." That reminds me I need to do an update on Jim Leavitt's disdain for Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez ...

-- USAToday.com has a Big East preview of sorts, but it doesn't have too much insight as to who will finish atop the logjam at the top of the conference.

-- ESPN.com's Andy Katz thinks USF's three mirror opponents in Big East men's basketball are a "difficult" draw, with Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Providence playing the Bulls twice in 2009-10.

-- Other BCS programs are picking up commitments from talent-rich Broward County. Tennessee has landed Michael Palardy, a top-rated kicker from Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, and Rutgers got a commitment from running back Marcus Thompson of Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson.

USF-Syracuse game gets noon kickoff

USF's Big East football opener at Syracuse on Oct. 3 will have a noon kickoff (woohoo!) and will be broadcast as Big East Game of the Week. USF's Oct. 24 game at Pittsburgh and the Nov. 21 home game against Louisville are also being considered for Game of the Week broadcast.

Don't put too much importance in the games that have been picked as Games of the Week -- in each case, the game selected was the only Big East conference games played that Saturday. The four games picked as Game of the Week aren't exactly marquee matchups -- they cover the four teams that finished in the bottom half of the league last year -- USF, Connecticut (2), Louisville (2) and Syracuse (3).

No USF Saturday games have been ruled out as potential Games of the Week -- three of USF's seven conference games are on weeknights. After Syracuse, the Pitt and Louisville games are possibilities, and no game will be chosen for the final weekend of the regular season, when USF is at Connecticut in a game that will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. Here's the official release from the Big East's official site.

USF men's hoops learns Big East matchups

The Big East has released its 2009-10 home and away opponents for men's basketball, and USF's three mirror opponents -- with games played home and away -- are Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Providence.

Lots of analysis to follow here, but USF's eight home games are against Cincinnati, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, St. John's, Seton Hall and West Virginia. The Bulls will go on the road to face Cincinnati, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisvlle, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, Syracuse and Villanova.

If you remember last year, USF got a raw deal from the league, with the toughest three mirror teams of any Big East team, going by the previous year's conference standings, despite tying for the worst record in the league in 2007-08. This year? Not nearly as bad -- the Bulls, after finishing third from the bottom of the Big East standings, are tied for the fifth-easiest schedule.

Midday sports report

Two Cents' Tom Jones brings you the news of the day, and let's you know the stories we're currently working on.

Great Q&A with Selvie: Did he say Oprah?

USF senior defensive end George Selvie did a radio interview Wednesday with Scout NFL Radio, which has now posted a full transcript online. Host Chris Steuber did his research, asking Selvie about everything from his breakout sophomore season to being hypnotized to having a car roll onto his head as an infant.

And we're OK with Selvie's favorite site being ESPN.com, we've seen him driving his Mercury Sable, but what about Selvie's dream date?

-- USF freshman basketball player Toarlyn Fitzpatrick was named first-team all-state for Class 5A, as voted by state sports writers and coaches. Guard Shaun Noriega was named a third-team all-state selection in Class 5A ...

-- Roster note: USF's sports information department confirmed Thursday that 18 incoming freshmen have joined the program and started summer classes this week. This corroborates the five freshmen we've reported as not expected to join the program this fall -- Khyri Thornton, Adaris Bellamy, Gerard Atkins, Kamran Joyer and Ivan Nicholas. The release said the school's incoming players from junior college are not taking summer classes and will join the team in August; we've previously reported that cornerback Kevin Williams won't be part of that group, but the other five juniors are expected.

-- Big East news: Notre Dame men's basketball has lost its top assistant, as Sean Kearney will be named head coach at Holy Cross, according to Foxsports.com.

Catching up: Assorted USF links to peruse ...

Lots of little notes to get to and more coming later. Working on a story for later this week on how former college linemen are able to drop a ton of weight after their playing days -- you won't believe what guys like Lee Roy Selmon and Derrick Sarosi weigh now, just four-plus years after they suited up for the Bulls.

-- Remember Shalon Pillow? The former USF women's basketball assistant, who was on the staff at Hofstra last season, has been hired as an assistant coach at Kentucky. Wildcats head coach Matthew Mitchell was a grad assistant at Tennessee while Pillow played for the Lady Vols.

--Former USF soccer player Kevon Neaves, instrumental in the Bulls' Big East championship last fall, has signed to pro contract to play in Sweden, according to USF's official site.

-- More soccer: Incoming freshman Hasani Sinclair, already named a Parade All-American, has been named to the U.S. national under-18 team, which will play in the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland later this month.

-- USF has declined to offer numbers for season-ticket sales in football, but other schools are getting hit hard by the economy, as can be expected. Louisville, for instance, has sold about 6,000 fewer season tickets this summer, according to a story in the Louisville Courier-Journal. The dropoff is noteworthy at Louisville because the school is adding 13,000 seats to its stadium for the 2010 season.

-- Here's a link that will generate some comments: Sporting News blogger Brian Cook thinks that USF's hesitance to accept signee Kamran Joyer isn't a function of his borderline grades, but rather of the school "getting caught with its hand in the oversigning cookie jar." He's using lines from this blog to illustrate his point, but he's not really on the mark -- if the Bulls were up against the wall in oversigning, they wouldn't have given walk-on Cameron Perkins a scholarship for this fall. That's not the action of a football coach who's worried he's over the limit on scholarships.

-- Interesting follow-up -- in response to Brian Cook's blog about USF comes a story from Alabama blog CapstoneReport.com, saying Cook is so far off base he and the Sporting News should apologize to USF.

NBA: Bigger role ahead for Solomon Jones?

Former USF center Solomon Jones has had a quiet role in his first three seasons with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, coming off the bench for career averages of 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.

But the start of the NBA's free-agent season today could change things for Jones. He's a restricted free agent, which means Atlanta has the right to match any offer made to him by other teams. But one of the primary players in front of him, Zaza Pachulia, is an unrestricted free agent and could be landing elsewhere, giving Jones more minutes as a backup to starter Al Horford.

Bleacherreport.com named Jones among its "top underdogs for each team" next season, arguing that Jones could see his playing time double if Pachulia leaves and the Hawks don't acquire another big man.

-- Another former USF big man, Kentrell Gransberry, played this season for the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Development League, helping the 14ers to a D-league championship. You can see video from their playoff run here, with a few shots of Gransberry, who averaged 5.2 points and 4.6 rebounds off the bench.

Gransberry won't be back in Colorado next season, but only because the Colorado franchise is being moved to Frisco, Texas, and won't play next season. We'll get another update on his future soon ...

-- Big East news: Cincinnati has added a McDonald's All-American in 6-6 forward Lance Stephenson, who has off-court issues but should be an impact player for the Bearcats. Zagsblog has a good writeup.