USF-DePaul Preview

Good Morning V5ers! Today, your USF Bulls head up to the Windy City to take on the DePaul Blue Demons in the BATTLE FOR 15TH at 2 PM. The game will be on WFTS if you're in the Tampa Bay area, and if you have DirecTV or Dish Network the game will be on SNY. If you're at the beach or going to the USF Softball stadium today, Jim Lighthall will take care of you at 1250 WHNZ.

Not much has changed since the last time we met in Jaunuary, except for the loss column for both teams and one solitary win by DePaul against Providence two weeks ago. It's still the same lineup that we saw in Tampa, but in case you forgot (and you probably did), here is the probable starting lineup for Coach Purnell.

G: 6' Jr. Jeremiah Kelly (7.4 PTS/2.3 REB/3.0 AST/1.9 STL)

G: 6'3 Fr. Brandon Young (12.0 PTS/2.4 REB/3.8 AST/1.1 STL)

G: 6'5 Sr. Jimmy Drew (6.6 PTS/3.5 REB/2.0 AST)

PF: 6'8 Fr. Cleveland Melvin (14.3 PTS/5.0 REB/1.5 BLK)

C: 6'10 Jr. Krys Faber (7.2 PTS/5.5 REB)

Coach Purnell still uses three players off the bench, but the depth chart has changed a little bit. 6'6 Soph. Tony Freeland (9.3 PTS/4.9 REB) is still the only post option off the bench, but he gives the Blue Demons a small but quick post who is a pretty decent defender for his size. 6'2 Jr. Michael Bizoukas (1.3 PTS/1.5 REB/2.0 AST) is the first guard off the bench, and as his stats show is more of a pass first guard. He's good for about 15-20 minutes a night and will give Kelly or Young a breather. 6'6 Fr. Moses Morgan (3.7 PTS/1.6 REB) has jumped Mike Stovall on the depth chart, taking all of his minutes and had his minutes slowly increased each game after his effort against USF. Just another promising freshman for Purnell along with Young and Melvin.

Melvin is the guy for DePaul, and he did a good job against us, going for 17 points. While we were busy trying to figure out how to stop Cleveland, Krys Faber had his best night of the season, going 7-8 from the field and scored a total of 16 points. Thankfully, only Brandon Young was the only guard that scored in double figures, and DePaul shot a paltry 3-13 from behind the arc as a team.

Jeremiah Kelly has been on fire from three over the last two weeks for DePaul, and if he continues his hot streak today could pose a real problem for our guards if they decide to help out on defense against their posts.

On offense, USF did a pretty good job against the press of DePaul, and Hugh Robertson along with Jawanza Poland had a huge night finding open lanes when they broke the first level. You might remember this from our award winning piece on the Best Moments in USF-DePaul History.

Wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of this today.

I have three predictions for today's game:

- A lot of empty seats

- A couple of big dunks by Jawanza

- The first road win of the season for USF

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