I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hopeful that USF will be ranked this week in at least one of the major polls.
It's still very early in the season to predict whether USF will be selected for the big dance.
Of the six new players on our roster, only one, Tamara Henshaw, has really had an impact and that is mostly on defense and rebounding.
Three of them haven't played at all.
E. Penhadzic will be lost for the season due to an ACL injury.
Another, N. DeJesus is coming off knee surgery and is expected to start playing within a few games.
The last one, S. Leverett is healthy, but for whatever reason our coach has not seen fit to play her.
The other two who have played, J. Bond and D Nagy, have been getting some floor time, but haven't contributed much.
So, we are mainly relying on our returning players to put up points.
Laksa has been amazing averaging 25.3 ppg and Pujo with 19 ppg. Two other players, Jesperson 9.8 ppg and Flores at 9.3 ppg are solid contributers as well.
2016-17 American Women's Basketball - Overall Statistics
L Ferreira, who was expected to be a main contributor, has a chronic foot injury. Despite that, she has been playing limited minutes and has contributed mostly on defense. So, her presence in the lineup will likely be a day to day thing depending on how she feels.
Our schedule, does not provide many opportunities to impress.
The Play4Kay tourney might be one such, depending on who we end up playing.
Aside from UCONN, the only other marquee game on our schedule is Louisville in Tampa on 1/22 .
Beating UL would go a long way in solidifying our resume.
I watched them play South Carolina yesterday. Of course, SoCal (like UCONN) can make even very good teams look bad.
It's long way from now to playing that game and things can change.
Having said that, based on where we both are today, Massey gives USF a 54% chance of beating UL (68-66).
Massey Ratings - South Florida Bulls
Winning THAT game might punch our ticket to the dance.
