USF Basketball 2012-13 Big East Schedule Released

We interrupt this football blog to bring you USF basketball's Big East schedule for the 2012-13 season, as announced by the conference this morning:

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- Sunday, January 6: Syracuse at USF, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Wednesday, January 9: Villanova at USF, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Saturday, January 12: USF at Louisville, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Thursday, January 17: USF at Rutgers, 9 pm (ESPN/ESPN2)
- Saturday, January 19: Georgetown at USF, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Wednesday, January 23: USF at Seton Hall, 7 pm (ESPNU)
- Saturday, January 26: Notre Dame at USF, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Monday, January 28: USF at Marquette, 9 pm (ESPNU)
- Sunday, February 3: USF at Connecticut, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Wednesday, February 6: Marquette at USF, 7 pm or 9 pm (ESPN2)
- Saturday, February 9: USF at Villanova, 3 pm (ESPNU)
- Wednesday, February 13: Providence at USF, 9 pm (ESPNU)
- Sunday, February 17: Louisville at USF, 1 pm (ESPN)
- Wednesday, February 20: USF at St. John's, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Wednesday, February 27: USF at Pittsburgh, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Sunday, March 3: DePaul at USF, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)
- Wednesday, March 6: Connecticut at USF, 9 pm (ESPNU)
- Saturday, March 9: USF at Cincinnati, time TBD (BIG EAST Network)

- Tuesday, March 12 - Saturday, March 16: BIG EAST Tournament, New York

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It looks like the Bulls could end up in an early hole, especially if they don't get wins over Villanova and Rutgers, two teams they should be able to handle. The Seton Hall-Notre Dame-Marquette stretch of three games in six days is pretty rough, too.

The schedule does lighten up considerably toward the end of February, with games against Providence, St. John's, DePaul, and a potentially chaotic UConn team.

Eight of the 18 conference games will be on an ESPN network, although five of those are on ESPNU. I'm disappointed that ESPN put the same handful of teams on Big Monday instead of giving some new teams like USF a chance in the spotlight. Still, the exposure is about what you would expect for a team that won 22 games last year but doesn't have the national cachet of Louisville, Georgetown or Notre Dame.

What do you all think about this schedule?