Big East Basketball Preview: South Florida

October 21, 11:12 PMCollege Sports ExaminerJacob Osterhout

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Dominique Jones will shoot a lot this season.

(For more Big East basketball previews check out that little sidebar on the right or visit Philadelphia College Basketball Examiner Ari Bluestein's page.)

The good news for the South Florida men's basketball team is that things can't get any worse.

If all the transfer paperwork goes through and no one gets kicked off the team, the Bulls should win more than three conference games this year, which would be an improvement upon last season. And that's all anyone can expect from South Florida - improvement.

Coach Stan Heath is in his second year and he's finally got a little talent to work with. The problem is, the main part of that talent, in the form of Georgia-transfer Mike Mercer, doesn't become eligible until mid-December.

As a freshman at Georgia, Mercer was the All-SEC freshman team, but injuries and discipline problems hampered the six-foot-four guard for much of his sophomore year and eventually led to his enrollment at South Florida. When Mercer becomes eligible, he has the potential to be the team's go-to guy.

He joins a backcourt that is the strength of this South Florida team. Coming off a freshman season in which he averaged 17 points, Dominique Jones will carry the offense. At six-foot-four, he can both penetrate and shoot.

But will he be able to play with Mercer come December or are their playing styles too similar? Considering South Florida's recent struggles in the Big East, the team can never have too much talent.

Joining Jones in the backcourt is another transfer, Jesus Verdejo, who came over from Arizona. He started to find his form at the end of last season and should offer the Bulls another consistent scoring option.

But maybe the most impressive guard for South Florida is Chris Howard, who rarely gets the limelight. A hard working point guard, Howard averaged almost five assists last season while evenly distributing the ball to his teammates.

In the paint is where South Florida will struggle again this season. The Bulls lost center Kentrell Gransverry, who averaged nearly 11 rebounds last season, and they don't really have anyone to replace him. Gus Gilchrest, a high-profile recruit who first signed with Virginia Tech then transferred to Maryland and finally wound up at South Florida, has the most potential, but he's never played a game of college basketball.

And other than Gilchrest, the Bulls have a whole lot of nothing. There's freshmen Alex Rivas Sanchez and Eladio Espinosa, but they are young and untested. And then there's seniors Aris Williams and Mobalaji Ajayi, but they have failed to prove themselves thus far in their careers.

So the goal this season for South Florida is simply to make the Big East Tournament. To do that, they'll have to rely heavily on guard play, but as we all know, in college basketball, it's the guards that win games.