Matchup: USF (13-17, 6-10) vs. SMU (19-10, 9-8)
Date: Saturday, March 7
Time: 7 p.m. (EST)
Location: Tampa, Fla. | Yuengling Center
TV: ESPN3 (Drew Fellios, Stan Lewter)
Radio: Bulls Unlimited (Jim Lighthall, Joey Johnson)
TAMPA, FLA., MARCH 6, 2020 – The USF men’s basketball team puts the finishing touches on the regular season Saturday at 7 p.m. when the Bulls welcome SMU to the Yuengling Center on Senior Night.
USF will honor seniors Antun Maricevic (Zagreb, Croatia) and Laquincy Rideau (West Palm Beach, Fla.) prior to tip-off along with student managers David Eichenberger, Keren Dang, Darian Dollar and graduate assistant Tim Heaton.
USF (13-17, 6-10) enters the weekend having won two of its last three games and sits tied for eighth place in the league standings. The Bulls will earn no worse than the No. 9 seed in the upcoming conference tournament with a victory on Saturday over SMU. USF can finish as high as the No. 8 seed with a win over the Mustangs and a UCF loss to East Carolina.
Junior guard David Collins (Youngstown, Ohio) continues to serve as the offensive catalyst for USF with a team-high 13.6 points per game to go along with 3.9 rebounds per game. Collins begins play Saturday against SMU needing one more point to move into ninth on USF’s all-time scoring list.
Rideau stands second on the team with 12.7 points per game while ranking 11th in the NCAA with 2.4 steals per game. The 2019 American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Rideau will finish his career ranked fifth all-time at USF and third all-time in league history with over 170 career steals.
Junior Justin Brown (Atlanta) adds 9.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game and is averaging 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game over the last four games. Sophomore forward Michael Durr (Atlanta) provides a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game.
THE OPPONENT
SMU (19-10, 9-8) has lost four of its last five games following a 61-58 setback at UCF on Wednesday. The Mustangs, however, lead The American in scoring offense with 73.4 points per game and are the league’s best free throw shooting team at 77.4 percent.
Sophomore guard Kendric Davis ranks seventh in The American in scoring with 14.7 points per game and leads the league with 6.8 assists per game. Junior guard Tyson Jolly adds 14.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, while Feron Hunt grabs a team-high 6.7 rebounds per game to go along with 11.2 points per game.
QUOTABLE
USF Head Coach Brian Gregory on Senior Night:
“Senior day is always tough on everybody, but it really is a celebration for our two seniors and for what they’ve done in the two years they’ve played here. You get to this point and you celebrate their success and you celebrate the impact they’ve made, but really you take a step back and think about how blessed we are to have both of those guys a part of our program.”
NOTABLE
• USF is 5-11 against SMU in the all-time series that dates back to the 1986-87 season.
• USF head coach Brian Gregory is five wins away from 300 career victories.
• David Collins has made 417 career free throws and ranks third all-time in school history and second in AAC history.
• Laquincy Rideau ranks 11th in the NCAA with 2.4 steals per game and has the 10th-most in the nation with 72.
• Justin Brown is shooting 43.9 percent from three-point range over the last seven games.
• Laquincy Rideau has the third-most career steals of any player in American Athletic Conference history with 173.
• USF is 19-7 since the start of last season when Justin Brown scores in double figures.
• David Collins has attempted the 16th-most free throws in the NCAA this season with 201.
• USF ranks 23rd in the NCAA in scoring defense by allowing just 62.8 points per game.
• USF has held 26 of its 30 opponents under their season scoring average.
• David Collins ranks 10th all-time at USF in scoring with 1,251 career points.
• Justin Brown has made the eighth-most career three-pointers in school history with 155.
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 owns nearly 300 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship. In his second season at the helm of the Bulls, Gregory led the team to the best win turnaround in the NCAA, the most single-season wins in school history and the 2019 College Basketball Invitational championship.
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, appeared in the NIT eight times and won the 2019 College Basketball Invitational.
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For tickets, contact the USF Ticket Office at 1-800-Go-Bulls or by going online to USFBullsTix.com.
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