NASHVILLE -- Scoring 80 points against South Florida is impossible. Scoring 70 is a rarity. Heck, even scoring 60 is a challenge.
Temple on Friday evening will face one of the most ferocious defensive teams in the country in the South Florida Bulls out of the Big East.
USF has held 24 of its 33 opponents this year in the 40s or 50s and ranks 18th in Division 1, allowing 59.4 points per game -- the lowest figure of the 68 NCAA tournament teams and the lowest by any Big East team since 2008, when Georgetown gave up 58.1 per game.
Playing defense has kind of been our foundation, South Florida forward Toarlyn Fitzpatrick said. Weve embraced that as our identity. We like to play defense a lot more than we like to play offense. We know getting stops is what keeps teams frustrated.
No. 21 Temple, the No. 5 seed in the Midwest, is a rhythm team on offense, and South Florida, seeded 12th, rarely lets anybody get in a rhythm. Thats the challenge facing the Owls Friday, when they face USF at 9:50 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena in an NCAA Midwest Region first-round game.
I think we have to come out aggressive, said Temple guard Ramone Moore, the Atlantic 10s second-leading scorer. They do a great job defensively. I mean, they held California to 13 points in the first half. We have to come out and play our basketball. Make the extra pass, hit the open shots.
They dont let you speed them up, as well. They do a great job getting their shots and slowing the game down. We cant try to speed the game up too much. Im sure thats what they want, but we just have to go out there and make shots.
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USF, 21-13, beat Cal 65-54 on Wednesday night in Dayton to advance to the field of 64.
It was the first NCAA tournament win in school history.
Good defense? At halftime, it was 36-13. Cal scored just five baskets in the first 20 minutes.
Whenever we made a basket, there were a few guys on our bench clapping, forward Ron Anderson said. Whenever we got a stop, everybody was standing up and cheering.
We really believe we can play that kind of defense every night. The first 20 minutes was probably the best half of basketball weve played in a long time.
Temple guard Juan Fernandez said he watched both USFs win over Villanova last week in the Big East tournament and the Cal game on Wednesday.
Theyre really good defending the 1-on-1, Fernandez said. They have big guards and athletic players that cover a lot of room, a lot of space, and they contest every shot. Its hard for teams to try to score as they would against other teams. So were going to have to move the ball, be patient and move without the ball, too, and play as a team more than ever on offense if we want to break them down.
South Florida has held its last 11 opponents under 60 points, has held 10 of those 11 schools under their season scoring average and has held nine of those 11 to under 35 percent shooting from the field. Those 11 teams have scored just 50.6 points per game.
Only three of USFs 34 opponents have scored more than 30 points in the first half.
Three of USFs wins this year came against Villanova, including a 56-47 decision in the Big East tournament in New York last week.
South Florida is the ugliest team to watch and play against, Nova coach Jay Wright said on Comcast SportsNet this week. They are big and strong at every spot except the point guard spot, and at the poing guard spot they have the smallest, quickest, most dynamic point guard in Anthony Collins that just dominates the ball.
So they use all their big guys early in the clock to get whatever shot they want. If they dont, they just give it to Collins at the end of the clock, and you cant stop him from getting off a shot. Then they pound the glass.
Now, theyre a great defensive team, but what does give them a little bit of trouble is great guards off the dribble and thats what Temple has, so I think Temple is good enough to score on them, and thats what youve got to do. It sounds simple, but a lot of teams havent been able to do it.
South Florida limits teams to 38.7 percent from the field, 14th-best in Division 1.
They hold teams to 29.5 percent from three, which is 10th-best in the country.
They average 30.6 rebounds per game, which is 25th-best.
They force 11 turnovers per game, 19th-best.
Ive heard somebody say (playing them) was like going to get a root canal, Dunphy said. But you know what? They figured out what they need to do to win. When you can be tough physically or tough mentally, you have a chance to be a really good team. I think at this point in the year, South Florida is both. So thats a tough task for us.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com