John Romano: USF has remade its basketball roster and maybe its reputation, too

TAMPA, Fla. — Gotta hurry. This story is moving quickly.

Turns out, after all these years, the secret to success for USF basketball was impatience. And maybe a little audacity.

Head coach Bryan Hodgson has been on the job for less than a year, and already the Bulls are steering toward unprecedented heights.

The roster? Torn apart and put back together practically overnight. Of the 14 players currently dressing out, 13 are new to the program.

The offense? Moving at warp speed. A quicker tempo means more possessions, which means more scoring opportunities, which means more points. The Bulls are on pace to set a school record for scoring, and it’s not even close.

The results? USF has gone from a 13-19 record last season to first place in the American Conference, while inching closer to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012.

The coach? Already being mentioned as a possibility for job openings elsewhere.

Out of breath, yet? Yeah, well, patience is not on the menu.

“Go out and find high-level players with good character that fit our system, install our system the way we want to play immediately, outwork people,” Hodgson said. “I mean, that was the whole plan. There’s no secret to it.”

It’s the same plan Nate Oats used at Buffalo and Alabama when Hodgson was an assistant on his staff. Same plan Hodgson took with him as a head coach to Arkansas State, a school with one 20-win season in the previous 25 years. The Red Wolves went 20-17 in Hodgson’s first season, then set a program record at 25-11 the next year.

“Nothing surprises me when it comes to Bryan Hodgson. He is a bareknuckle brawler who is as real as it gets,” said USF CEO of athletics Rob Higgins. “When he puts his mind to something it’s not an option whether he’ll be successful or not. When he puts his mind to having a great team, he’s going to have a great team.”

The plan, naturally, has a little more nuance to it. Finding the right players in the transfer portal is critical. For a program in a mid-major conference, it’s a delicate dance to chase talented players who might not be attracting the attention of higher-profile programs.

USF pulled eight players from seven different schools, including James Madison, Oakland, Central Connecticut State, LSU, Robert Morris, Lincoln Memorial and two from Arkansas State. Not exactly a “Who’s Who” of college recruiting, but the kind of players who would buy into Hodgson’s schemes. He also signed five freshmen, who have been role players for the most part.

With the personnel in place, Hodgson began the process of molding them into a unit. There were offseason workouts with friends of Hodgson’s, who happen to be Navy Seals. There were high-intensity practices where the players discovered the Bulls would be playing an NBA-style offense that pushes the ball quickly up the court, would not be afraid to shoot 3-pointers and emphasized seizing the first opportunity no matter what the shot clock said. The players were also taught about non-negotiables — bad habits or plays that would not be tolerated in practice, let alone in games.

It helps that two of USF’s best players — 6-foot-10 forward Izaiyah Nelson and shooting guard Joseph Pinion — had played for Hodgson at Arkansas State. If any players had doubts about the efficacy of Hodgson’s fierce approach, they were assured by Nelson and Pinion that the results would soon be obvious.

So while the roster had been overhauled, there were at least two players who provided a sense of the culture Hodgson was building.

“You had 13 new guys here and most of them didn’t understand what was going on in his offense,” said Nelson, who is averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds a game, and is a favorite for American Conference Player of the Year. “Everybody was willing to accept what Coach was saying, but it helped that they could come to me or Joe and say, ‘What does Coach Hodgson mean by this?’ Or ‘How is this going to work?’ It’s a process. It’s just having the want and the will to trust that we’re doing this the right way.”

And now, months later, the Bulls are a couple of victories from clinching the regular-season conference title. The resulting No. 1 seed would mean USF gets a bye into the semifinals of the American tournament, putting them two victories from the school’s fourth NCAA tournament bid in 53 years of basketball.

Point guard CJ Brown (one of two holdovers from last season’s USF roster along with De’Ante Green, who is redshirting with an injury) leads the conference in assists per game, junior Wes Ennis is sixth in the nation in 3-point baskets, Nelson is tied for second in the nation in double doubles, and Pinion is 15th in the nation in total 3-pointers.

There’s still work to do, beginning with Wednesday night’s road game against Rice. While the regular-season conference title appears safe, the Bulls probably need to win the conference tournament to get an NCAA bid.

“I tell the players all the time, nobody has ever won a trophy or hung a banner in February,” Hodgson said. “What have we accomplished? Has anybody signed a professional contract yet? No. Do we have rings on our fingers? No. So why would we take our foot off the gas now?

“We’re close, but we’re not there yet. And there’s no better feeling in life than when you see your work pay off, whether it’s in sports or life in general. These guys are seeing some of the fruits of their labor and it’s starting to click. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is why we did that. This is why we worked so hard.’”

The end is fast approaching. And the Bulls are still in a hurry.

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