TAMPA, Fla. — The South Florida men’s basketball team (13-18, 6-12) goes into the American Athletic Conference tournament having lost four games in a row.
The Bulls know what they must do: win four games in four days to win the conference championship and clinch a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s win or go home at this point now, just being more locked in than ever, locked in on the scout details, just trusting our preparation and work we’ve been doing all season,” USF guard Jayden Reid said.
USF is the ninth seed and will face Wichita State, the eighth seed. The Bulls and Shockers split the regular season series, with each team winning on the road.
“That first game we played at Wichita we really saw our potential as a team,” USF forward Kobe Knox said. “We know it’s still there. We can always get back to that.”
“We all settle in and find a rhythm together, " Reid added. " I feel like we’re one of the most dangerous teams in the conference,”
A potential dangerous team playing with heavy hearts. Their head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim passed away just weeks before the start of the season. Abdur-Rahim as 43 years old.
“It’s not easy and I think what people see is surface,” USF interim head coach Ben Fletcher said. “You see them play a game but you don’t see what they go through every single day. That type of loss it just doesn’t go away, mainly because these guys came specifically for Amir.”
USF and Wichita State tipoff at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas.
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