After just one road win in its first three seasons in the Big East, USF got a convincing win in its Big East road opener, winning 80-58 at DePaul on Saturday.
Junior point guard Chris Howard had a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists, and sophomore guard Dominique Jones led four Bulls in double figures with 22 points. Freshman forward Gus Gilchrist had a season-high 16 points and senior guard Jesus Verdejo had 18 points. The Bulls had their best free-throw shooting game of the season, connecting on 13 of 15 attempts.
The 22-point margin makes it USF's second most lopsided Big East, trumped only by last year's 23-point win against Rutgers.
We'll have more soon from our writer covering the game in Chicago, but for now, here's a link to DePaul's live stats to see the boxscore.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
ORU definitely has a young team but we're not a bad team - USF is a bad team. Come on man
Posted by: ORU fan | January 10, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Go Bulls! As I said, 0-19 was destroyed by some of the lower tier teams being really bad in the Big East. Rutgers, Depaul, st john's and Seton Hall are all ripe for the taking.
Good game today, but we can't expect to shoot this well ever again the rest of the season.
Posted by: Reality | January 10, 2009 at 10:46 PM
How about let's focus on preparing for the next game. It will be much tougher. But a great philosopher once said: "a journey of a million miles begins with but a single step." Today we took a nice single step. Another great philosopher, Scot Brantley, a gator but otherwise a good guy, said: "let's just worry about the next game, 'cause the only one you can do anything about." Wise philosophers indeed.
Posted by: Bull Hooper | January 10, 2009 at 10:15 PM
I'm pretty sure the guy talking about going dancing was being sarcastic
Posted by: Bill | January 10, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Dancing, short of winning the Big East tournament, would probably take 11 wins in Big East play -- that'd put USF at 16-14 with a ridiculous league record.
Be happy with the win, but it'd take a ton of wins, most tougher than this one to reach any kind of postseason ...
Posted by: Greg Auman | January 10, 2009 at 09:44 PM
Dancing? This must have been a great game, and it is definitely terrific to have a road win in the BE, but that's a lot to expect.
Posted by: Ken | January 10, 2009 at 09:23 PM
Nice- it isn't a big deal for most schools, but going on the road and crushing a Big East opponent is a nice sign of the future- shot efficiency was key- over 50% made, and 86.7% on free throws. When I saw that, there was a pig flying around my apartment. I was hoping he'd land in the oven, but he got out the window.
Gilchrist was 6-8, which is great, and the guards were really active. In the words of Herm Edwards, THIS IS SOMETHING WE CAN BUILD ON!
Posted by: David Weber | January 10, 2009 at 08:46 PM
IT'S ABOUT TIME!
YAY!
Posted by: Mike Lakeland | January 10, 2009 at 07:28 PM
That's what I'm talking about, this is the year we're goin' dancin'!! It’s Awesome Baby !!!
Posted by: GoBulls!!! | January 10, 2009 at 06:42 PM
Keith,
GC never actually played at Maryland or VaTech. His first college basketball playing time was in December.
Posted by: JT (Atlanta) | January 10, 2009 at 05:59 PM
gilchrist played at maryland last year. he can't be only a freshman.
Posted by: keith | January 10, 2009 at 05:47 PM
Nice surprise.
Posted by: Windbane | January 10, 2009 at 05:04 PM
There is no doubt that this team is much improved since the trip to Puerto Rico. Gilchrist is coming into his own, and he is only a freshmen which is good for USF. I like the fact that they had a good FT shooting game today. Missed FT's in the past has really hurt USF. I cant stand watching USF miss FT and FT, so it was good to see them improve on that today. Next up is against #1 PITT in Wednesday. No breaks in the B16 EAST.
Posted by: Bull Daly | January 10, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Congratulations Bulls! Good win!
Posted by: Steve O'Neal | January 10, 2009 at 04:17 PM
Man, who were those guys on offense? They looked like a real team!
Yes the opponent was really bad today, but Oral Roberts is really bad too and look what they did to us.
Posted by: JT (Atlanta) | January 10, 2009 at 04:03 PM
we win! YES!
Posted by: BULL HOOPER | January 10, 2009 at 03:59 PM
we win. awesome. we can win more, too. best performance in a while. let's build on it. great job by the players and coaches. there is hope. there is reason for optimism.
Posted by: BULL HOOOOOOOOOOOOOPER | January 10, 2009 at 03:56 PM
YES YES YES YES WE GONNA WIN!!!!!
Posted by: BULL HOOPER | January 10, 2009 at 03:47 PM