Men's hoops opens with Syracuse on ESPN

USF's men's basketball team will open Big East play on national television, with the Bulls hosting Syracuse on Jan. 2 in a game televised on ESPN. Five days later, the Bulls are on national TV again, as the Bulls' home game against Louisville will be on ESPN2.

And then the Bulls aren't on either network the rest of the conference season.

The league announced its conference schedule on Thursday, with all 144 league games televised in one form or another for the second year in a row. You can see the full schedule here.

After getting the first two games at home, USF has three road games in eight days, going to DePaul, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. In the first eight league games, only two (both against DePaul) finished in the bottom half of the conference last season.

There's another hellish stretch in mid-February, with three games in seven days: at Notre Dame, Georgetown at home and at Connecticut. Will USF play a game downtown at St. Pete Times Forum? Only two of the home games (DePaul and Providence) have direct conflicts with Lightning home games; the Times Forum has not released any other events for 2009 yet.

Here's the full schedule for USF:

January: 2 -- Syracuse (ESPN); 7 -- Louisville (ESPN2); 10 -- at DePaul; 14 -- at Pittsburgh; 17 -- at West Virginia; 21 -- DePaul; 24 -- Villanova; 28 -- at Louisville.

February: 1 -- at St. John's; 6 -- Marquette; 10 -- Providence; 15 -- at Notre Dame; 18 -- Georgetown; 21 -- at Connecticut; 25 -- at Seton Hall.

March: 1 -- West Virginia; 4 -- Cincinnati; 7 -- at Rutgers.

Who's on national TV the most? There are 48 games on ESPN, ESPN2 or CBS, and you can tell the Big East's haves and have-nots pretty quickly. USF gets two games, and there are six other programs only on twice: DePaul, St. John's, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Cincinnati.

The most appearances? That goes to Notre Dame and Villanova, with 11 each; then Connecticut with 10, then Louisville, Pittsburgh and Syracuse with 9 each, then Georgetown (8) and West Virginia (7). So the top nine teams in the league get 88 percent of the national TV games.

Comments

[Reality]

Any word on Midnight Madness this year? Me, the champ,herman and ari need to attend. Dave W, sorry your senior year didnt have one.....

[G.A.]

Haven't gotten an update since we did an update with Heath a few weeks ago. The key date is having him fully cleared when practice starts in five weeks or so ...

[Reality]

I am sure Greg can get us a Rivas update. He is tall and Stan can't get anyone up front, that is all you need to know.

[DJ]

Does anybody know the status of Rivas? Is he going to play or what? Heard he has not played one game of pick-up or anything yet. How do you get a scholarship while being hurt?

[The Champ]

Yeah I don't like the schedule either but National networks shell out big money thus giving them a little bit of control over who plays who and when.

If or when USF basketball becomes a higher priority for local fans and tv audiences, some networks will bargain with us if a scheduled game or event causes a conflict.Naturally the other team has to also agree with any kind of subtle change.

[Reality]

Love how the Champ is angling....if we have EVERYBODY.....even with Gilchrist, it is going to be a LONG year.

[Bull Hooper]

well, that explains alot, G.A., because the USF Mens' Basketball Team's scheduling has always been whacked. Too often, game times conflict with other attractive local events, like Bucs games.

[G.A.]

I don't think USF gets much say at all in when the games are played.

[The Champ]

IF WE HAVE EVERYBODY available we will beat the Syracuse but not Louisville.We may be a year away from being able to have a chance against the Cardinals who has whipped our a** the worse since we come into this league.

[Dave W]

I really don't like that our home games are scheduled for while the students are gone. The crowds will look even worse than they already are. If we can win of those, however, it will be the biggest win in recent history, because it could actually be a momentum-booster. As things look right now, though, I'm going to say that we don't have a chance.

[Bull Daly]

You gotta love that ESPN/BIGEAST TV contract. BIG EAST basketball gets great exposure, so you can see that USF basketball will build up.