Bulls Take Winning Streak to SMU for Thursday Showdown
Matchup: USF (15-6, 5-4) vs. SMU (12-9, 4-5)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 7
Time: 9 p.m. EST
Location: Dallas, Texas | Moody Coliseum
TV: ESPNU (Richard Cross, Sean Harrington)
Radio: AM 820 | USF Bulls Unlimited (
Jim Lighthall)
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TAMPA, FEB. 6, 2019 – Winners of three consecutive games, the USF men's basketball looks for its second straight road win Thursday at 9 p.m. when the Bulls travel to Dallas to face SMU at Moody Coliseum for a matchup broadcast live on ESPNU.
USF (15-6, 5-4) enters play coming off an 84-78 victory Saturday over Memphis that moved the Bulls into fifth place in The American standings. Sophomore guard
David Collins (Youngstown, Ohio) scored 20 points and added five rebounds and two steals to mark the third time in four meetings with Memphis that Collins has scored at least 20 points. Overall, Collins leads the USF offense with 14.6 points per game and ranks 24th in the NCAA with 2.3 steals per game.
Justin Brown (Birmingham, Ala.) scored a career-high 19 points and made five three-pointers Saturday against the Tigers and is shooting 69.2 percent from three-point range over his last two games. Brown has made a team-high 38 three-pointers this season and ranks fourth in The American with a .413 three-point field goal percentage.
Redshirt junior
Laquincy Rideau (West Palm Beach, Fla.) ranks second on the team with 14.0 points per game and leads the NCAA in steals with 3.2 per outing. Rideau enters play Thursday needing just one more steal to become the USF single-season record holder with 69, which would pass a record held by Leon Smith that has stood for the last 44 years.
Redshirt freshman
Alexis Yetna (Paris) stands third on the team with 13.0 points per game and leads The American and ranks 22nd in the NCAA with 9.8 rebounds per game. Yetna has already turned in a league-best 10 double-doubles and has more than nine teams in The American. On Saturday against Memphis, Yetna pulled down four rebounds and upped his total to 206, and now has more single-season rebounds than any other freshman in school history.
THE OPPONENT
SMU (12-9, 4-5) has lost two in a row and four of its last five after falling at Cincinnati on Saturday. The Mustangs were within two points with 33 seconds remaining, but Cincinnati made free throws and scored the final three points of the game on its way to a 73-68 victory. SMU, however, is 9-4 at home this year and ranks second in the league behind USF with 13.1 offensive rebounds per game. Â
USF transfer and Mustang senior guard Jahmal McMurray leads SMU and ranks third in The American with 18.5 points per game. McMurray has also made a team-high 73 three-pointers and shoots 39.5 percent from beyond the arc. Forward Ethan Chargois leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game and stands third with 12.4 points per game. Guard Jimmy Whitt Jr. adds 12.7 points per game and ranks fifth in the league with 4.3 assists per game.
QUOTABLE
Head coach Brian Gregory on Thursday's test at SMU:
"With a good win on Saturday, you turn around and now you're playing on the road at a place us as a program hasn't had a lot of success. It's a great challenge to be able to respond and go on the road. We won our last road game and our guys are starting to get the better feel for how well you need to play on the road. Our league is obviously an example of it, but you look around the country and if you don't play well on the road, you have no chance to win. We've got to do a lot of good things. They're one of the best rebounding teams in the conference. They shoot the most threes out of anybody in the league, other than Houston. It's a great challenge for us defensively and offensively. The biggest thing for us is to be able to take care of the basketball. That's one of our biggest areas of improvement that we need to make."
NOTABLE
• SMU leads USF 9-4 in the all-time series that dates back to the 1986-87 season.
• USF is in search of its first four-game winning streak in league play since the 2011-12 season in the Big East.
• USF's six losses are by an average of 4.7 points per game. Four of the six losses have been by three points or less.
• USF is the only school in the NCAA to have its conference leader in rebounds, assists and steals.
• USF redshirt junior
Laquincy Rideau is only 48 points shy of 1,000 for his collegiate career.
• USF redshirt freshman
Alexis Yetna has more double-doubles (10) than nine teams in The American.
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Alexis Yetna is first in the American Athletic Conference and 21st in the NCAA with 10 double-doubles.
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Laquincy Rideau ranks first in the NCAA and first in The American with 3.2 steals per game.Â
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Alexis Yetna leads The American and ranks 22nd in the NCAA with 9.8 rebounds per game.
• USF has taken the most free throw attempts in the NCAA with 614. USF has made the 13th-most in the NCAA (391).
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Laquincy Rideau is one steal shy of setting a new USF single-season school record.
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About USF Men's Basketball
The USF men's basketball team is led by head coach Brian Gregory. On March 22, 2017, Gregory was introduced as the 10th head coach in program history. He previously led programs at Georgia Tech (2011-16) and Dayton (2003-11). Gregory spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach under Michigan State's Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo and helped the Spartans win the 2000 NCAA National Championship. Gregory brings nearly 250 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship, to Tampa. In his first season at the helm of the Bulls, Gregory led the team to its first 10-plus win season since 2013-14.Â
USF has retired three numbers in its 47-year history: Chucky Atkins (12), Charlie Bradley (30) and Radenko Dobras (31). The Bulls have earned three NCAA tournament bids and appeared in the NIT eight times.
For tickets, contact the USF Ticket Office at 1-800-Go-Bulls or by going online to USFBullsTix.com.
To stay up-to-date on the latest USF men's' basketball news, follow the Bulls on social media (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram).
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