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Freshman forward Orane Chin has been granted permission to seek a transfer to another institution, USF men's basketball coach Stan Heath announced in a news release.
Chin is the fourth player since the end of the season and sixth under Heath to receive a release.
Chin averaged 3.9 points and 2.9 rebounds in 30 games this past season.
GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Freshman Dominique Jones was named Big East Rookie of the Week after averaging 22.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in two games. It was the third time Jones has won the award.
Former Bull Dante Curry has transferred to Georgia State, joining coach Rod Barnes' program. Curry, a 6-foot-4 wing player, redshirted last season and then played sparingly this season in six games. He averaged 2.0 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists. He would be eligible at Georgia State in December after the fall semester ends.
The men's basketball team finally gave Stan Heath his first win as Bulls coach, 100-69 over Florida Atlantic in Daytona Beach. The Bulls (1-3) play Florida State at 8:15 Sunday.
The keen eyes over on the message boards at thebullspen.com picked up a story in today's News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. -- first newspaper I ever wrote for -- about former USF defensive coordinator Rick Kravitz, who's now the special teams coach at N.C. State.
Story re-affirms something we wrote about here on the blog this spring, that Kravitz' decision to leave USF wasn't a money issue. Again, Kravitz made $104,000 at USF, plus an $8,000 bowl bonus, and is making $115,000 at N.C. State, arguably with less job security. Given that all of USF's assistants got at least a $19,000 bump from last year, it's safe to say he even took a pay cut to moev to the Research Triangle, where his new wife had a job offer in pharmaceuticals.
Couple of quick notes. First, the biggest position change this week in football is quarterback Nate Allen shifting to safety. On Monday, coach Jim Leavitt said Allen was staying at quarterback and redshirting, and by Wednesday, Allen apparently decided he wanted to be on the field this fall. Now he's a free safety, and by Friday morning, Leavitt was calling him "as good a safety as I've seen in a long time." Sounds like USF wasn't fighting the move too much ...
One of the highlights of practice -- that we're allowed to see, anyway -- are the "board drills," which put two players against each other straight ahead, just raw strength and technique, one pushing the other back. Few things seem to get the players more fired up -- things spilled over a bit when a pair of walk-ons, defensive end Treco Bellamy and guard Morgan Mathis, went at it, with a few punches even being thrown. Bellamy's giving up 55 pounds in that one, but the converted linebacker showed himself to be a physical guy.
Bulls added another walk-on lineman Thursday in former Indian Rocks Christian player Warren Garrison. Interesting addition, what Leavitt said is basically another big body for the scout-team offensive line. Garrison has been at three junior colleges and spent the past two semesters at USF ... Saw a little of new running back Shawn Cannon, from Highland Community College in Kansas, whose arrival came as Walt Smith missed practice with what Leavitt said was academic issues he had to clear up befoer he could return to playing.
Went to basketball practice on Thursday night and watched as the players scrimmaged for an hour and a half against a group of former players and others, including Reggie Kohn and B.B. Waldon. The group going to Italy, with a little help from transfers Jesus Verdejo and Kentrell Gransberry, who aren't allowed to make the trip, led almost the entire way, but Kohn hit some big shots in the last minute to pull out a one-point win. In a 112-111 game, I"m guessing Kohn scored at least 40. Seeing a little more offense from guard Chris Capko and forward McHugh Mattis -- those two were rarely given respect from opposing defenses last season as threats to hit or even take a jump shot, so that's a good development for USF's scoring balance.
On a sad note, send some kind thoughts and prayers to redshirt freshman guard Chris Howard, whose father passed away this week. Howard flew back home to suburban Washington, D.C., to be with his family. He'll return to the team tonight, in time to fly out to New York and Italy on Saturday. Howard's endured two ACL tears in the past year, and now this -- a lot of adversity for a guy who just turned 20 on Tuesday. He still has things to keep his head up, like hopes of returning healthy for the Big East season in January, and his 2-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, whose name is tattooed on his right calf.
I'll throw a plug in for men's soccer's exhibition Saturday night at USF against the University of Tampa, a first chance to see what might be the best team on campus this season. The Bulls, picked to repeat as Big East Red Division champs, beat UT 7-0 last year to keep the Rowdies Cup on the north side of town ...
I'll get to USF's first football practice of the fall in a paragraph or two, but first, the most impressive thing I saw on campus Monday was the sleek black BMW parked at the Sun Dome. Nice ride for Atlanta Hawks rookie Solomon Jones, who is hanging out with his former teammates, working with Terrence Leather and Marlyn Bryant as part of a practice squad for USF's current team, which leaves for 12 days in Italy on Saturday. It said a lot to me that the former players cared enough about the current team to help them out at practice like that, during a time that could easily be spent resting in the offseason before they return to pro teams overseas.
USF will basically have five players for the trip, along with walk-on guard Eddie Lovett. Those five -- Chris Capko, McHugh Mattis, Melvin Buckley, Aris Williams and Melvyn Richardson -- held their own at times during a full scrimmage against the Bulls alums and friends. Capko was especially surprising, draining a pullup jumper (!) and an international three (!!) in a span of five minutes. Midyear transfers Jesus (called "Zeus" by teammates) Verdejo and Kentrell Gransberry are getting good practice time as well, though they can't travel for the trip. It'll be a thin Bulls roster in November, buoyed a bit by three freshman guards, but depth won't be as much an issue by the new year.
Ah, yes, football. The start of practice was delayed 40 minutes by lightning in the area, an anxious Jim Leavitt watching the skies, then sprinting onto the field. So excited were the Bulls to take the field that the entire offense was out there before folks realized that nobody had told the defense the team was taking the field.
It's a time of year where Leavitt is very careful and calculating with his words, and Monday, he said he was impressed by the leadership of all five quarterbacks, even freshman Nate Allen, who he said would stick at quarterback this fall and redshirt rather than shifting to another position such as safety. Senior Pat Julmiste took the field with the first-team line at first -- for the record, that had Jared Carnes, Nick Capogna, Jake Griffin, Walter Walker and Danny Tolley -- but redshirt freshman Matt Grothe seemed to see as much action behind center.
Asked whether he had an early leader at running back -- likely between sophomore Ricky Ponton and redshirt freshman Moe Plancher -- Leavitt was noncommittal, saying even that walk-on Walt Smith had the best yards-per-carry in the spring. (Never mind that Plancher missed nearly all of spring drills with injuries and Ponton, too). He pointed out that last fall, West Virginia's No. 4 tailback entering fall drills was Steve Slaton, who wound up earning Big East Rookie of the Year honors as a dominating runner.
It's hard to tell when a first unit is together, especially in this first week, where the last week of summer school overlaps, forcing some players to come late and others to leave early. It looked like Danny Verpaele and Jeremy Burnett were working out as starting safeties. (On a side note, redshirt freshman Jerome Murphy has shifted from No. 34 to No. 13.) The next foursome working through drills, though not necessarily the secondary secondary, was cornerbacks Tyller Roberts and Ryan Gilliam and safeties Louis Gachette and Murphy, who could play either position.
The only position change of note is more of a novelty. Freshman walk-on Quincy Okolie of Palm Beach Central has the dubious distinction of changing positions twice before his first practice. Okolie, listed at 6-6 and 220 pounds, was first listed as a tight end, but deemed too light and shifted to receiver. Perhaps USF realized it had 15 other guys listed as receiver, as Okolie was working Monday as a skinny defensive end. A walk-on's first year on campus is always an evaluation period, so nothing unusual there.
One other thing that impressed me Monday was seeing would-be freshman Jeremiah Warren, one of eight non-qualifiers from this year's recruiting class, standing in streetclothes with the offensive linemen, watching coach Greg Frey and learning as much as he can without actually participating in drills. Warren will spend the fall in Tampa, working to improve his test scores so he can enroll in January as the first part of next year's recruiting class. If he takes the time to sit in on practice, even on a semi-regular basis, that's a commitment you don't see from many kids.
One more note: Kosha Irby, who came to USF last summer as the program's first assistant athletic director for marketing and event promotions, is headed back to Saint Louis University. He'll be an associate AD there, a solid jump for someone as young as Irby. He'll be missed, but don't take his departure as any knock on USF -- he has family and a fiancee back in St. Louis.
Tuesday is media day, so I've got to purge lots of old quotes from my digital recorders, leaving enough room for two hours of interviews at Raymond James Stadium ...
Hey, loyal readers. Just making sure all the technological stuff is working well. Make a habit of checking this address and not the old one ...
News? It looks like former Bulls basketball star Marlyn Bryant will be a part of the new ABA pro basketball team, the Tampa Bay Strong Dawgs, who will play at the University of Tampa and practice in Wesley Chapel. The team has tryouts on Aug. 19, but I can't imagine them getting a talent level where Bryant can't make the roster. He played professionally in Mexico this past year and is back in town for the summer ...
I'm trying to track down a photo of Andre Hall in a Bears uniform. The transaction barely registered a blip on the Chicago sports radar -- a single line in the Chicago Tribune, and the Rockford Register Star reported that Hall was "signed for depth purposes," with Tony Hollings recently released and Thomas Jones nursing a sore hammy.
The most love for Hall came from the Courier News Online, a suburban Chicago paper. And for all you folks who got Hall's autograph as "Andre Hall #36" from his Buc days, that rare signing's value should soar skyward -- Hall will wear jersey No. 25 with the Bears, according to the official site's roster.
News should start coming pretty steady -- the state's college football coaches meet in Tampa this weekend to meet with the media, and football practice starts for the Bulls on Aug. 7. For now, it's just tying up loose ends here and there around campus ...
-- After last week's surprising news that running back Andre Hall had been cut by the Bucs, it now looks like he should be in camp with another NFL team next week. Hall's agent, Jonathan Kline, said Wednesday that two teams have shown the most interest in Hall -- Seattle and Chicago -- and while no move is likely before early next week, the Bears and former Bucs executive Jerry Angelo seem eager to get Hall into their camp, even if it means cutting another player to make room for him.
-- I watched a voluntary workout at USF on Tuesday afternoon and left very impressed with the progress by the Bulls receivers since last fall. Jim Leavitt had said after spring drills that receiver was USF's most improved position, and the summer seems to be another step in that direction. Jackie Chambers was out there at full go for the first time I'd seen since he hurt himself during spring drills, and as deep as the Bulls' returning receivers go, I was impressed with the way freshman Jason Sherman looked. The three freshmen will be hardpressed to break out of redshirts this fall, but it'll be interesting to watch. ...
-- Got to see USF's football media guide on Wednesday -- looks sharp, with a player's outstretched hand holding a gold USF helmet on the front. Four key seniors are pictured on the back -- linebackers Stephen Nicholas and Patrick St. Louis, quarterback Pat Julmiste and receiver S.J. Green.
There's some curious updates from the depth chart in there -- redshirt freshman Danny Tolley is listed as the starting left guard, ahead of sophomore Matt Huners (the rest of the line, as expected is LT Thed Watson, C Nick Capogna, RG Walter Walker and RT Marc Dile). Another redshirt freshman, George Selvie, is listed as the starter at right end, ahead of Jarrett Buie, and freshman walk-on Ilia Petrov is the only player listed at punter.
-- Interesting news Wednesday about the new All-American Football League, a spring venture that will have pro teams playing on college campuses across the country. The league's official site invites fans to suggest schools they think are deserving of an AAFL franchise. The bad news for USF fans is that the Bulls aren't even an option: the site lists 68 schools, but four Big East schools (USF, Cincy, UConn, Rutgers) don't make the cut. So USF's alums -- and college degrees are required -- will likely play in Gainesville, it would seem. And no, Central Florida isn't listed either ...
-- From the Where Are They Now Dept., former USF defensive tackle Paul Uhatafe, who did not play in his only year on campus, will play this fall at College of the Canyons in California. His goal, his dad says, is to return to USF to finish his college career. And USF is considering two more Uhatafes -- twin linebackers Navi and Zco, rising seniors at Gibbs, will likely be a package deal wherever they go, according to their father.
-- USF men's basketball coach Robert McCullum has added a new walk-on for the upcoming season in 6-5 guard/forward Jared Rubens from Miami Krop High School. Good player from a great high school team that included three Division I players, his coach, Marcos "Shakey" Rodriguez, said he's a smart, heady player who wouldn't hurt a college coach if he had to play a few minutes here and there to spell someone.
By January, USF's depth problems should be a thing of the past, but this summer is still much like last spring. Because incoming freshmen can't practice with a team before a foreign tour, and because midyear transfers can't travel on them, the Bulls right now have six healthy players for their trip to Italy next month. Redshirt freshman Zaronn Cann has not been cleared to play yet but could before the team leaves on Aug. 12.
 Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
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