Bulls Get Big Boost of Support for Their Foreign Tour of Canada
2019 FOREIGN TOUR FUNDRAISING PAGE
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, MAY 8, 2019 – Head coach
Brian Gregory's Bulls are gearing up for the USF Men's Basketball Foreign Tour in August and they've already gotten a huge boost of support from loyal followers of the program.
Earlier this week, Anddrikk Frazier, a guard for the Bulls from 1996-99, and die-hard fan Lauren Pickel proudly presented the program with a check for $3,518.50 on behalf of a special group of Bulls followers that will help fund USF's tour of Canada set for Aug. 3-9.
Frazier, Pickel, Jared Capouya, Mike Griffin, Jason Merenda, Ed Narain, Cedric Padilla and Nolan Shaeer all made donations after participating in the USF Men's Basketball Free Throw Challenge that served as a great way for fans to follow games closely throughout the season.
"As aggressively as we played this year with attacking the rim, if we could get to a place where we were 75-76 percent as a team, we probably would have won six or seven games that came down to last-second shots or going into overtime," said Frazier, who got the free throw challenge off the ground through social media. "We picked 65 percent as a number and $5 for every point afterwards. Lauren came up with the standard deviation calculation."
Pickel, a 2014 USF graduate and Diamond Doll for four years, even came up with a spreadsheet that helped her monitor the Bulls' progress after each time they tipped off.
"I could see exactly how much everyone had to contribute per game," said Pickel, the Entertainment Manager at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa. "We put in all the stats for each game. I was constantly on GoUSFBulls.com figuring out the stats and everything."
Frazier's group ended up contributing more than $400 apiece to the fundraising initiative USF also kept track of during its historic 24-win season that saw the Bulls capture the College Basketball Invitational title.
"The thing that I really enjoyed about it was Anddrikk, a former player, kind of starting it out with him taking ownership in a program that is so near and dear to his heart," Gregory said. "The more and more people that got involved with it, it kind of took on a life of itself."
USF ended up setting school records for the most single-season free throws made (658) and free throw attempts (1,018). The team also reached new program milestones for three-pointers (272) and rebounds (1,483) in Gregory's second run with the Bulls.
"We made improvements during the year from the free throw line, which was good and it bodes well for the future," Gregory said. "The opportunity for us to receive this check and basically pay for one of our guys on the trip is fantastic for the program."
Thanks to supporters, USF already has momentum in its mission of raising more funds to support lodging, meals, transportation and cultural experiences for the Bulls during their tour of Canada. Fans of the program can continue to help the Bulls by contributing gifts of any amount
HERE.
"We're really excited about (the trip) for a lot of different reasons," Gregory said.
The foreign tour will allow the Bulls to have additional training time and play four games against high-level competition during the bonding experience in Montreal and Quebec City.
"We'll get 10 days of practice where now we can collectively come together, maybe do some different things we're looking at heading into next year, but also highlight the things we're going to do well," Gregory said. "Everybody will get a lot of playing time and we'll look at some different combinations, look at some of the younger guys, and different things like that."
USF's relentless focus on improvement led to the biggest turnaround in the NCAA this season with the Bulls posting 14 more wins than the team's 2017-18 total. Frazier and Pickel both saw USF make notable strides throughout the memorable season and were happy to invest in the program's future through the free throw challenge.
"I'm super passionate about USF Athletics. I'm super passionate about this new basketball team," Pickel said. "I think Coach Gregory is doing an amazing job with the gentlemen that we have. I think there's nothing better I would want to do than contribute whatever I can to a team that's going to do whatever they can."
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.
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.
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