PITTSBURGH - Stan Heath knows his South Florida basketball team may not be the popular pick when it comes to NCAA tournament contenders. Yet after the Bulls' 56-47 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday night, he said it's time to look past flash and at results.
USF's 10th Big East win guarantees the Bulls a winning conference record for the first time since they joined in 2005.
"Ten wins in this conference is 10 wins in this conference," Heath said. "That's a hell of a deal. We need to get some more. We're not satisfied, but we should be in a big discussion nationally for what these guys are doing."
Anthony Collins scored a career-high 22 points to lead South Florida (17-10, 10-4), which beat Pitt (15-13, 4-11) for the second time in 12 days. He made 8 of 10 from the floor and added a game-high six assists.
"We're happy to do it because it's never been done," Collins said, "but we can't be satisfied with just 10 [conference] wins. We have four more to go."
Those four games could do a lot to convince the selection committee that the Bulls are worthy.
"They're a tough team but, at the same time, we didn't play up to our capabilities," Pitt's Ashton Gibbs said. "We didn't take advantage of opportunities we had on offense. We had a couple of open shots we just didn't knock down. We had a lot of defensive mishaps they took advantage of, too."
SOUTH FLORIDA (17-10): Anderson Jr. 1-4 0-4 2, Gilchrist 3-8 2-4 8, Rudd 5-8 0-1 11, Collins 8-10 5-7 22, Robertson 1-5 1-1 3, Poland 1-3 0-0 2, Nash 0-0 0-0 0, Noriega 0-0 0-0 0, Fitzpatrick 3-7 0-0 8. Totals 22-45 8-17 56.
PITTSBURGH (15-13): Patterson 0-2 0-0 0, Robinson 4-10 1-2 9, Zanna 1-4 0-0 2, Woodall 1-4 0-0 2, Gibbs 1-7 0-0 2, Epps 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 3-5 0-0 8, Taylor 0-5 3-4 3, Moore 8-14 4-6 21. Totals 18-52 8-12 47.
Halftime-South Florida 28-27. 3-Point Goals-South Florida 4-10 (Fitzpatrick 2-5, Collins 1-2, Rudd 1-2, Robertson 0-1), Pittsburgh 3-12 (Johnson 2-3, Moore 1-4, Gibbs 0-1, Robinson 0-2, Woodall 0-2). Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-South Florida 36 (Anderson Jr. 9), Pittsburgh 30 (Robinson 11). Assists-South Florida 11 (Collins 6), Pittsburgh 13 (Robinson, Woodall 3). Total Fouls-South Florida 10, Pittsburgh 20. A-9,849.
