Cincinnati vs. South Florida Preview

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University of Cincinnati vs. University of South Florida

@ Madison Square Garden

Game Time 7 pm.

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Well I Can't believe I'm writing this but South Florida overcame a sixteen point deficit against Villanova to advance to the 2nd round of the Big East Tournament. This is a big time trap game for Cincinnati and I hope they don't come in too cocky and unprepared. If they do they could be coming back to Cincinnati tomorrow night. South Florida will have an early edge, I'm talking first four minutes, due to the fact they played on Tuesday and will be into the flow of the game. That early edge though will be given back late when the Bearcats are fresh and South Florida could be on tired legs.

Mick Cronin said it best the other day, when he said if they play and lost to Villanova it's no big deal. If they lose to South Florida it's a big deal and will likely cost them a few spots in the seeding in the NCAA Tournament. That said, this is a game the Bearcats should win and advance to the Quarterfinals against Notre Dame, which should help their seed a bit. South Florida comes into this game with 10 wins and 22 losses, including a 3-15 record in the Big East regular season.

The thing that worries me about the Bulls is they have a stud 3 point shooter, Shaun Noriega. If he gets hot and the Bearcats allow him open looks on the perimeter they could be in trouble. That's the thing that makes college basketball, especially March, great. One player can get hot and carry a smaller school on a run through their conference and NCAA tournaments. The Bulls run a set of 3 Guards and 2 Forwards who are basically Centers at 6-10 and 6-11. They like to play inside out, feeding those big men to force doubles and kick it out to Noriega. Gilchrist is their best big man and Famous the other Center is a good defender and rebounder. The Bulls don't have much, really any, depth on the inside and if Gates can get their bigs in foul trouble it should be game over. The Bulls basically play 7 players, 9 got in the game tonight, but the other two were for 3 and 4 minutes. When they sub for their bigs they basically run a 4 Guard set and when that happens UC should be able to use their size to their advantage, and still have the length and athleticism to guard the smaller, 4 Guard set. The Bulls aren't a great rebounding team even with the two Centers underneath, and the Bearcats should be able to put up a lot of second chance points.

Keys to the Victory:

• Hit the offensive glass hard
• Dominate the glass on the defensive end
• Feed the ball inside to Gates and get their bigs in foul trouble (if they do this it's game over)
• Guard Noriega on the perimeter
• Use the bench and the advantage with the bye, giving yourself fresher legs
• With the fresher legs, press and make them run the full court
• Get up big so we can rest players for Notre Dame