After six days off – a benefit of being the No. 1 seed – South Florida begins play Saturday at 3 p.m. in the semifinals of the American Conference men’s basketball tournament.
The opponent at Legacy Arena in Birmingham? The same Charlotte 49ers the Bulls toyed with in an 80-63 season-ending triumph in Tampa on Sunday.
This time, however, the setting is different and the stakes are higher – a chance to play for the tournament title and its automatic bid in the NCAA tournament.
No matter, USF coach Bryan Hodgson doesn’t expect his team to play any differently after rolling to a 23-8 record with a nine-game winning streak to end the season.
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"We don't have to flip a switch,” Hodgson said. "We play every game the same way. We play it to win. There's no extra pressure. We're not going to play differently. We're not going to prepare differently.”
No. 5 seed Charlotte (17-16) earned the rematch with an 83-78 victory over No. 4 Alabama-Birmingham in the quarterfinals on Friday. Dezayne Mingo led the 49ers with 35 points.
Sunday's loss to USF was the 49ers' ninth straight, but they have reeled off two straight wins in Birmingham. Charlotte, which was voted by conference coaches to finish last before the season began, also beat Tulane, 74-60, in the second round on Thursday.
“I think that we have something that no other team in this conference has, and that's we got picked 13th (in preseason), so we have a chip on our shoulder,” Mingo said after Friday’s win. "That's our motivation every time we step out there.”
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The Bulls, who won a program-best nine road games this season, are led by conference Player of the Year Izaiyah Nelson, who averages 15.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. The senior’s 18 double-doubles this season rank fifth in the country.
“All I’m thinking about is doing whatever I need to do to help the team win,” Nelson said. “Whether it’s diving on the floor, grabbing every rebound, yelling, screaming and having the energy because some guys don’t like to show off that energy.”
No. 2 Wichita State meets No. 3 Tulsa in the other semifinal at 5 p.m. Saturday. Both Saturday games are on ESPN2.
The winners meet in the championship game at 3:15 Sunday with a bid to the NCAAs on the line. ESPN will show the finale.
The Bulls could still earn one of 37 at-large bids if they lose this weekend. The NCAA tournament committee makes those selections by comparing team data, including rankings determined by the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET).
The entire 68-team field will be announced at 6 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
Bulls’ assistant takes Tennessee Tech job
USF is losing a basketball coach. It’s not Hodgson, although the unconfirmed social media prattling out of Providence and Syracuse says otherwise. Not this weekend, anyway.
Bulls special assistant Tobin Anderson has signed a reported five-year contract to be head coach at Tennessee Tech, but he’ll stay with USF until the postseason ends.
“It’s been special + we have a lot more to do!” Anderson wrote on X.
Hodgson congratulated Anderson on X, noting “his passion, experience and energy made a real impact on our program. But we aren’t done quite yet!”
