South Florida Bulls Basketball 2015-16 Season Preview

The South Florida Bulls may have finished the 2014-15 season at the bottom of the American Athletic Conference standings, but they’re quietly putting together a talented team for 2015-16 and the future.

Leading scorer Corey Allen Jr. is gone; the Bulls will miss his 15.4 points per game. However, the next three leading scorers are set to return. Chris Perry, Nehemias Morillo and Troy Holton Jr. will form the veteran core of this team and hope to incorporate Gonzaga Bulldogs’ transfer Angel Nunez. They also will include highly rated JUCO transfer, Shawn Smith.

This team also brings in several talented recruits, Tulio Da Silva and Luis Santos. Several more additions are either committed or considering USF in 2016. South Florida’s roster is becoming more and more talented, it’s just a matter of time before the Bulls start to win games.

In non-conference play, USF faces tough match-ups with the NC State Wolfpack, Kentucky Wildcats, George Washington Colonials and Seton Hall Pirates. If the Bulls are to make it to the NCAA tournament as an at-large, they would have to win at least two of these games and avoid any bad losses to their other non-conference opponents. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening unless some of the younger players step up in a major way.

In conference play, things get far more difficult for South Florida. There are five teams in the American Conference that look more than capable of making the 2016 NCAA tournament as at-large teams, meaning that there are five teams that should beat USF fairly easily. However, four of the seven Bulls’ home-and-homes are against the East Carolina Pirates, UCF Knights, Houston Cougars and Tulane Green Wave. All of these games are definitely winnable and could lead to great seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament.

Nevertheless, expect South Florida to hover in the middle of the AAC standings this season. They play in an extremely talented conference and are currently in the midst of rebuilding. Although, they are not yet ready to compete with the upper-level teams in the AAC. USF basketball is headed in the right direction, and this year should be a sign of things to come.

Taylor Sturm is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.