clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Five questions with Voodoo Five (St. John's/ South Florida pregame)

We welcome Jamie to answer some of our burning questions about the South Florida Bulls.

By Norman Rose
Stan Heath explains the concept of rebounding?
Stan Heath explains the concept of rebounding?
USA TODAY Sports

When your team is 1-12 in the league with no end in sight, things get a little depressing. Our friends at Voodoo Five fight the good fight covering the South Florida Bulls, but man, they have seen a lot of losing. This year might actually be worse than the others,.

But read about who the Red Storm fans should watch out for, whether there is an end in sight, and the programs actions in the realignment game. Read their site! Check out our game previews!

Preview: Lavin returns to lead Johnnies vs USF | Lav is back and ready for Johnnies' stretch run

Now, the questions and answers with Jamie from the USf site Voodoo Five.

Q: So the reason that I get these questions to you so late is that I flat out forgot about the South Florida game. Is there any evidence of teams playing down to USF, mailing it in, thinking about the next game so far in Big East play?

VF: I wish there was, because maybe USF would have won another game by now. Then again, the Bulls are so uncompetitive this season that teams don't have to work very hard to win. I think the last game where they gave good effort for 40 minutes was UConn, which they lost in overtime. Before the Louisville game on Sunday, USF had played three straight games where they had been outscored by at least 20 points in a half. I'm on record as saying I don't think USF will win another game this year, including DePaul (and obviously this game). They're bad, there's no strong leadership like Ron Anderson Jr. gave them last year, and they frequently show signs of having packed it in.

Q: What's so wrong with South Florida? They're on pace to have the worst Big East in-conference offense in the last 6 years of the Big East (since they joined).

VF: I wrote about this on our site yesterday -- basically they have no one worth concerning themselves with other than Anthony Collins. With no functioning post players, no one who can score off the dribble, and bad outside shooting, AC has to create almost everything on his own, and Big East defenses don't let you do that. They could go faster on offense to make it look better on the scoreboard, but it wouldn't do much for their efficiency.

Q: Are this year's results a fireable offense for Stan Heath? And what does the near future look like?

VF: No, because he has goodwill saved up from last year and because it's so incredibly hard to win consistently at USF. It's a nowhere job in a death march of a league. I think it's a lot like the Miami job, where you have to be down for a year or two, assemble your team, and then take a run at glory (Miami's current run being an extreme example).

Heath does have a top-20 recruiting class signed up (no, really, check ESPN's rankings ($)!) so there will be an infusion of talent coming in next season. It may take a little while for it all to gel, but combine that with the conference getting easier and USF does have the potential to rise back up pretty soon.

Q: What rituals have you guys developed to deal with the poor season? I saw the extinct bird series and thought it was awesome - I learned all about the tragic tale of the Great Auk.

VF: We've done a meme for every basketball season we've had the blog, with the expectation that USF would be awful and we would need something to keep our sanity.

The first year we did queefcore music (ed. note - link is bout former Johnny Rob Thomas). Last year we did drink recipes, which went in a completely different direction when we needed more celebratory drinks.

This year, to honor the end of the Big East as we all know it, we decided to do an extinction meme. I don't know what we'll do next year. Maybe we'll do Dante's Big East and go through the 18 circles of Big East hell. (Hey, that's a good one! I need to remember this idea.)

Q: Which players should St. John's be afraid of/ worried about? (props for going beyong Victor Rudd/ Fitzpatrick/ Anthony Collins)

VF: They should not be worried about anybody except Collins. The wild cards would be the two freshmen, Zach LeDay and Javontae Hawkins, who have seen their minutes go up in Big East play and have shown flashes of what they can become in a year or two.

Q: So right now, rumors are rising* that the B1G is looking at some ACC schools, which them starts the next domino match** of available schools to a better conference. We know Cincinnati is whispering sweet somthings*** to the ACC, what's South Florida been up to?

*like tides. I want a new metaphor for rumors, something different than swirling. Swirling is corny, isn't it?

**who even sets dominoes to fall anymore? I just play the dang game, matching numbered sides with numbered sides. And drinking rum. And yelling DOMINO because that's the best part.

***a sweet nothing is so unhelpful. Isn't that just heavy breathing?

Did I open any wounds? Sorry.

VF: That wound's been open so long that all the blood's trickled out. Anyway, realignment rumors are terrible news for USF unless Florida State leaves the ACC. That conference is the only realistic option for us, and as long as the Noles are still there, we don't bring anything to the table. (The phrase I've heard is "geographic redundancy.")

Of course, our athletic department is too busy misspelling football players' names on award plaques to give us any assurance that they've got this thing under control.

Follow the Rumble on Facebook | Follow on Twitter: Rumble In The Garden | Follow on Tumblr

Next Up In St. John's Red Storm men's basketball