March 01, 2018 | General
Harlan Podcast Talking Points
Learn more about the topics Director of Athletics Mark Harlan is discussing in his fourth podcast below:
Part 1
Women's Basketball Preparing for Postseason
Harlan discusses USF (24-6) recently moving up to No. 13 in the latest RPI, which puts the Bulls in the mix for hosting NCAA tournament games.
Before the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, March 12 (7 p.m., ESPN), Harlan is looking forward to traveling with the team to Uncasville, Conn., for the American Athletic Conference Championship. Second-seeded USF begins its tournament run in the quarterfinals 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena (TV: ESPNU).
- USF is on track to earn its fourth consecutive NCAA tournament bid and seventh consecutive postseason appearance after securing its sixth straight 20-win season. Head coach Jose Fernandez has guided the Bulls to the postseason in 14 of the past 15 years.
- USF (24-6) is in the midst of its sixth straight 20-win season after going 13-1 at home in the regular season.
USF's NCAA tournament resume includes four games against top-15 opponents, including an 84-65 victory over Big 10 regular season champion and 13th-ranked Ohio State on Feb. 11. "That was a great night, it really was," Harlan said. "It reminded me of that LSU game a couple years ago (in the NCAA tournament) – that same kind of energy and people really on their feet the entire game. I don't think the team really allowed us a moment to really sit down. They just had their foot on the pedal and they stayed that way."- Sharpshooter Kitija Laksa shined in the win over Ohio State with an AAC record 41 points after knocking down eight of USF's 11 three-pointers. Earlier this week, Laksa was named as one of five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, which recognizes the top shooting guard in the country.
Seniors Maria Jespersen and Laia Flores head to the postseason as the most successful class in program history with 99 career victories. Jespersen leads the league with 17 double-doubles this season while averaging 18.3 points and 9.9 rebounds. Flores leads the conference with 6.5 assists per game and she's four assists away from 500 in her USF career.
Big Start for Baseball
Harlan reflects on an exciting opening night to the season that saw the Bulls knock off No. 6 North Carolina, 4-3, before a loud crowd of 1,653 at USF Baseball Stadium on Feb.16.
"It was electric. We had a lot of students that were hanging down the foul lines on both sides. It was just a really great night, a beautiful night, as typical for the nights we have here when we compete."
- Beating the Tar Heels made Billy Mohl a big winner in his first game as USF's head coach. Mohl spent the past three seasons as USF's pitching coach and helped the Bulls' staff lead the nation with 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings in 2017. "Billy and his staff are doing a fantastic job. When you look at the pitching and some of our youth in the field, you can see where this team is headed this spring. It should be really exciting."
Ace Shane McClanahan lived up to preseason All-America hype by striking out 11 on opening night in six masterful, shutout innings. The fireballer's fastball reached 98 mph on the radar guns of about 50 pro scouts in attendance.- Right after playing three games against No. 6 UNC, USF battled another one of the nation's elite and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss at No. 5 Florida State on Feb. 20. USF will face another national powerhouse down the road with a test at No. 1 Florida on May 8.
Part 2
Spring Football Starts on Monday
Harlan looks ahead to USF football spring practice, which begins Monday morning at the Morsani Complex.
Head coach Charlie Strong has wisely crafted a 15-practice spring schedule that allows the Bulls a week off for spring break before a four-week finishing run that will be capped off with the spring game at Corbett Stadium on Saturday, April 14 at 2 p.m.
This marks the fifth straight year the Bulls will play at the home of USF soccer and again this year, fans can enjoy a pre-game street fest with music, games and food prior to kickoff. Learn more HERE."It's just a great way to end spring football with huge crowd of our fans. There's a lot of excitement."
- Harlan says the time is now for emerging talent to step up in position battles with USF having to replace 11 starters from last season's 10-win team, including captains Quinton Flowers and Auggie Sanchez.
- USF will benefit from continuity with the complete coaching staff returning. The Bulls haven't had that kind of coaching luxury since the 2012 season. "This group that we hired last year really likes being here," Harlan said.
2018 Football Schedule Released
The recently released 2018 season schedule features six home games, including a test against Georgia Tech on Sept. 8, and only two weekday games.
The Bulls' lone home weekday game is Friday, Nov. 23 against UCF. Last season's exciting War on I-4 rivalry game attracted 4.7 million viewers on ABC and was rated by Athlon as the nation's best regular season game.- USF's homecoming game against UConn is set for Saturday, Oct. 20 at Raymond James Stadium.
- The Bulls will be well prepared for the regular season finale against UCF with trips to Cincinnati (Nov.10) and Temple (Nov. 17) prior to the home game against the Knights.
USF Football Center Update
Harlan touches on the recent news of successfully going through the university governance process of presenting the indoor facility project to the trustees.
USF Athletics spoke with the strategic initiatives committee, which agreed the program should seek designers for the project.- USF Athletics also took the project to the university finance committee and got 100-percent approval.
- Learn more about the 160,000-square foot facility dedicated to student-athlete excellence in all sports HERE.
Tough Softball Schedule and Mr. 900
Harlan marvels at head coach Ken Eriksen's desire for the Bulls to face the toughest opponents available, which has been strongly evident already this season.
USF has already faced four top-25 opponents leading up to Thursday's home doubleheader against No. 6 Oregon that begins at 3 p.m.
The Bulls made noise early in the season with a 3-2 victory over No. 18 Michigan on Feb. 10 and secured Eriksen's 900th career victory by defeating UAB that same day. Eriksen will be honored for his incredible achievement at Sunday's home men's basketball game against SMU at 2 p.m."He's a USF grad. He's just true green and gold, through and through. I'm really proud of him."
More on Eriksen
- Starting as a student-athlete on the baseball team, Eriksen arrived at USF in 1979 and went on to compete in eight world championships and was named First Team All-World as a catcher in 1992.
- Eriksen took over the USF softball program in 1997 and has led the Bulls to 12 NCAA postseason appearances, two Super Regionals and the program's first Women's College World Series trip in 2012.
Eriksen won a gold medal as an assistant coach on Team USA's 2004 squad in Athens. Eriksen took over as head coach of Team USA in 2011 and guided the national team to a gold medal win at the Pan American Championships this past summer.
Part 3
Student-Athlete Profile: Meredith Bissette
Harlan spends his favorite part of the podcast interviewing a USF student-athlete. This edition features USF softball's Meredith Bissette, who has an incredible story of overcoming adversity.
Bissette was in the midst of her sophomore season in 2016, when she received bad news soon after getting her first-career hit at East Carolina in her home state of North Carolina.- After dealing with constant pain, an MRI revealed a baseball-sized cancerous chordoma tumor on her spine. Bissette had several bone biopsies, which later revealed dead cancer cells.
- With a goal of becoming a physician's assistant Bissette is set to graduate with a health sciences degree in May after going through four surgeries since August 2016.
- One of her surgeries was a nine-hour procedure on her back. Bissette bounced back from a procedure that normally keeps patients in the ICU for 14 days and was out in three.
- Bissette had to re-learn how to sit down and eventually made it back to USF for her final ceremonial career start in February 2017.
- Now cancer free, Bissette is still highly involved with the program as the team's scoreboard operator at home games this season.
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics sponsors 19 varsity men's and women's teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls' athletic program celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015, having begun with a men's soccer contest in 1965. Nearly 500 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 13 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, including four in 2016-17, and own 110 conference championships overall. Ten USF programs reached national post-season competition in the 2016-17 season and nine were ranked in the Top 25 nationally. The Bulls posted a program-record 86 percent Graduation Success Rate in 2016, logged an annual department grade-point average over a 3.0 for the second straight year and saw 106 student-athletes earn their degree during the 2016-17 academic period.
Follow @USFAthletics on twitter for all the latest information concerning the USF Athletic program.
- #GoBulls –
Players Mentioned
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Thursday, July 09
Thursday, May 28
