This afternoon the South Florida Bulls face the DePaul Blue Demons at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, looking to win their third straight Big East game and improve to an unprecedented 5-2 in conference play. Tipoff is at 2:00pm Eastern time, with streaming coverage on ESPN 3.
USF hits the Windy CIty following a 64-49 win over the St. John's Red Storm 64-49 in Tampa on Wednesday night. Victor Rudd exploded for 24 second-half points against the shorthanded Johnnies, and the Bulls were never seriously threatened after opening up a double-digit lead shortly after halftime. The Bulls' formula for success has been a slow pace, solid defense, strong rebounding, and good free-throw shooting, which they'll need to bank another conference road victory.
In his second season, DePaul coach Oliver Purnell has the Blue Demons slowly trending in the right direction. But DePaul is still struggling this year. They come into today's game on a four-game losing streak and standing at just 1-5 in league play, with their only Big East win coming over a still-winless Pittsburgh team). Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young provide a strong one-two scoring punch, averaging nearly 35 points per game between then. But DePaul is last in the Big East in rebounding, which could be a major problem against USF.
This is the only meeting between the two teams in the regular season. The Bulls have won six straight against the Blue Demons, and with a win today USF will have more wins in Big East play (5) than they did in all but one of their entire conference seasons since joining the league in 2005-06.