USF to Face Perennial Power Kentucky Next Season

The Bulls will make a trip to Lexington in 2016.



TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 22, 2015 - USF's men's basketball team will face perennial power Kentucky next season at the
first-ever Hoophall Miami Invitational on Nov. 27, 2015 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Fla.
It will be the first-ever meeting between the twoprograms. It will also be the first time USF's Orlando Antigua will face

Kentucky as a collegiate head coach. USF's first-year head coach spent the previous five seasons as an assistant
coach at Kentucky under head coach John Calipari and helped the Wildcats to a record of 152-37 and the 2012 NCAA national championship.

"We look forward to the challenge of playing one of the greatest programs in the history of college basketball," Antigua said. "I was fortunate enough to spend five great seasons at Kentucky, so I obviously have great respect for that program and coach John Calipari. I want to thank the folks at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for including USF in this inaugural event. I know our great fans will make it down to Miami in November."
Antigua did get to face Kentucky in August in an exhibition game when Antigua was the head coach of the Dominican Republic national team. The Dominican Republic defeated Kentucky 63-62 on Aug.17 in the Bahamas. The Hoophall Miami

Invitational is a part of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will also feature Memphis and Ohio State in a doubleheader. Tickets for the event will go on-sale to the general publicon Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster.com.




USF will play in Lexington, Ky., on the Wildcats' home floor, Rupp Arena, during the 2016-17 season. Kentucky, the winningest team in college basketball history, is currently the No. 1 team in the country with a record of 18-0 overall and 5-0 in the Southeastern Conference.
Partners of the Hoophall Miami Invitational include The HEAT Group, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and Miami-Dade Sports Commission. ESPN has also committed as a television partner and will release broadcasting information at a later date.



The Hoophall Miami Invitational is the culmination of two separate multi-team events. Campus-round games will take place for each of the above-mentioned schools in two brackets. A full schedule of those games and opponents will be released at later date. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is the sponsoring conference of these multi-team events and a partner of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Bulls are 7-11 (1-4) this season and are the second youngest team in the country. USF plays at Temple on Thursday at

6:30 p.m. on ESPNews. USF has signed three players for next season including two four-star recruits. Orlando Antigua
is in his first season as head coach after spending the past five seasons as an assistant coach at Kentucky.
This post was edited on 1/22 2:49 PM by Russ Wood

Kelly, you said you were looking into this last week but I don't think we ever heard anything back. It sounds like Josh Grady will visit USF and UF, and then decide.

Did you talk to him and or your sources and see what Grady is thinking as far as USF and which way he is leaning?

Joey Knight
Former @Armwood_Hawks QB (ex-Vandy QB/WR) Josh Grady said he has pretty much limited transfer choices to UF & USF. Planning visits soon

Russ, you've talked a bunch on this site on Under Armours change of plans upping their game/money and their challenge to Nike on the AAU basketball circuit especially in the state of Florida with closing breakdown and having new Florida team and coaches, can you give us an update?
Under Armour appears ready to challenge Nike UA Association AAU Basketball circuit. Seemed like they are building and momentum from last year's UA Association national aau league. 

What do you know about Nick Blatchford and C his Hightower who head head Under Armour AAU basketball nationally?

You had mentioned that Under Armour had huge plans to revamp their recruitment of the top coaches and players in Florida and Tampa, and that they were shutting down their AAU team Team Breakdown which had local Jordan Fair and top players from Tampa in Juwan Durham and Eric Hester and Florida stars like Dewan Huell to put together bigger and better team(s) to challenge Nike in state of Florida.

What coaches and players are they trying to finalize for this springs UA AAU push? Some of the areas best players are all at Oldsmar Christian in Eric Hester, LJ Figueroa, Dontay Bassett, etc, will they keep Oldsmar Christian as UA hs team and what other Florida high schools are they targeting?

I ask obviously because USF is an Under Armour School and will be greatly impacted by the UA's increased presence and influence in Tampa and Florida when trying to land Juwan Durham, Dewan Huell, Eric Hester, Dontay Bassett, etc.

This 2016 local class is the big one he has to land, and I believe Antigua is up to the challenge.

Also 2 of the top players near Tampa in Sarasota that USF is recruiting, Brion Whitley and Emmanuel Lambright that have USF offers, will they team with the Tampa kids for UAs team?


This post was edited on 1/22 12:43 PM by southfloridabull

Who plays the "five" backer? Meaning there is usually two CB's and S's, so it has to be a glorified nickle, or a OLB that has good cover skills. Sounds like it would be a bigger safety.

I know Kelly has alluded to Doughty being a transfer option, and of course Grady has said he is looking at coming to USF as quarterback, but want to see Taggart and David Reeves get involved with former Bradenton IMG QB Micheal O Connor.

Kelly, is USF interested in any of these quarterbacks considering we were rated 128 of 129 worst quarterback situation in America and we've only had 1 QB come I'm each of Taggarts 1st 3 classes?

LSU QB Stephen Rivers
Vanderbilt QB Josh Grady
Penn State QB we recruited hard Micheal OConner
Arizona State QB Micheal Brewer
Notre Dame QB Everett Golson
OSU QB Braxton Miller
WKU QB who has graduated but not announced transferring Brandon Doughty
Stanford QB Kevin Hogan


The Graduate Transfer QB market is VERY good this spring in college football http://t.co/SNbMo5LwYf http://t.co/7zzzg8HP9q

The ARS Rescue Rooter National Hoopfest comes to Tampa this Friday and Saturday. The event will be held at Berkeley Prep and my preview of the event is on the homepage. It's a chance for Bay Area hoops fans to see some elite basketball talent from in and outside the state of Florida

ARS National Hoopfest

story here u go

click for story

Kelly,

Now that official visits have just started up for USF, I noticed there are only 4 visitors listed on Rivals site for this weekend and none for the crucial last official visit weekend of January 30. Is that accurate? I know USF is visiting LB commit Nico Satellite teammate Chris Favoroso and are looking at him and possibly accepting him as a late hback addition.

Will they be able to get Dwayne Lawson or Ray Ray Mccloud to visit down the stretch and what other top targets are they trying to bring in for official visits these last 2 weekends?

It's disappointing that as of now Indiana has as good a class in the Tampa Bay area than we do now with Crawford, Hale, and RaeKwon Jones which isn't much. Other places have RaeKwon Jones who just Comitted to Indiana this past weekend still visiting.
Great chance of landing these 4 listed by rivals?

January 23
Jonathan Crawford ATH
Donavan Hale WR Indiana
Shelton Lewis DB
Jaypee Philbert OL

January 30
None listed

This post was edited on 1/20 12:54 PM by southfloridabull

Coconut Creek's Alexy Jean-Baptiste would be a nickel for USF.

talked to him last night, USF has dropped him. He is down to FAU and Cincy. Just FYI someone asked about him the other night.

Saw this interview Willie Taggart did last week on how he is taking over the Bay Area and the nearest counties nearby. Few Quotes below, you can read in its entirety link below.

He brought in 13 Tampa Bay recruits last year in 2014 class, 17 total when including I4 corridor and nearby southwest ft myers, immokolee. This was the top recruiting class in the AAC 2 years in a row.

He's been building for this 3rd class, this is where we should see his best class at USF ever as he's been personally recruiting and building a relationship with The Tampa Bay and surrounding players and their families for their entire varsity career before any of their recruitment took off. This is where we get to see how elite a recruiter with this 2015 class locally. Many of the kids who commit to USF and Taggart THE Next Month Will Be Tampa kids again it sounds like from this article. He's only got 3 Tampa commits so far, and almost a whole class to recruit this next month as He's only got 13 commits so far. Danny Thomas who enrolled early today and Reilly Gibbons count back for 2014 as he tries to keep his top commitments Marlon Gonzalez and Khalid Mcgee. So we will see a lot commitments the next month,at least 15.

Let's see how good a recruiter as he tries to sway and flip Dwayne Lawson, Ray Ray Mccloud, ryan davis, Don Hale, Jon Crawford, Jeff Smith, derrick baity, aaron covington, tj simmons, the lakeland qb alexander,jordan griffin,luke heirs, the lake Gibson kid, kelvin mcknight, christian pellage,and a host of others. Here's the article on him recruiting the Tampa Bay area hard the next month as that seems like their singular focus...

"USF head football coach Willie Taggart has a vision...

Taggart and his staff are claiming anything -- or anyone -- within about an hour's drive from the Tampa Bay area.

Howard Schnellenberger put that concept into use when he turned Miami into a national power in the 1980s, using nearly all local kids from what fans dubbed the "State of Miami."

"We are going to milk the bay. All 10 of our coaches including me are going to try and get the top players who live here," Taggart said. "If we could get all the top players there, we would be awful successful. We want to make this place into something special.""

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/12/27/5551330/usf-football-willie-taggart-declares.html#storylink=cpy

This post was edited on 1/5 10:09 PM by southfloridabull

Jaypee Philbert from Coffeyville (KS) visiting, Bulls in his top 4

click for profile

I just wanted to get an update for certain recruits who I was/am personally interested in who I know that USF was at least interested at one point.

What's going on with Kal-El Williams? I know he didn't have an offer from us, just interest but are we going to let FAU walk away with this one? I'm am a little surprised that we haven't extended an offer by now.Speaking of Largo, how is Damian King doing? I've liked this kid as a receiver but I haven't heard anything as of late. I know we've been filling up on receivers lately and now the news that Barr could flip...are we still looking at King or has that ship sailed as well?Anything new with Devin Timmons and where he sits? Looks like right now on this site USF, GT and Cincy are listed as "high" interest wise. Is there anything going on there or are we past him at this point?Who is Tyrell Reed interested in? His profile doesn't really have it narrowed down and there aren't any recent stories on him. We offered him a loooong time ago but haven't heard anything since and tons of other schools have jumped on him. I don't think anything is there at this point but figured I'd at least try and get an update to see where he stands.

Andrew King
BREAKING: Texas has hired former Oklahoma WR Coach Jay Norvell to the same position.

Sometimes it's hard to find USF gear in many places other than a store that only handles football merchandise. Sure, it's a small thing but that's how you start...from the beginning,



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Jan 10
Lots of work to do with increasing Bulls merchandise but appreciate pic.twitter.com/yOAWO75ibF

Jordan Griffin hasn't heard much from Wisconsin, looks like they are trying to dump him.

Ryan Pulley had a great visit and measured in at nearly 6'1" 200 lbs. He is going to visit Arkansas next weekend and Texas A&M is trying to get the last visit, Bulls lead for now.

Can you give us a rundown of USF Coaches visits Today and Tomorrow?

After as whole weekend with these 3, Was Taggart and USF able to ensure these 3 are firmly Comitted to USF, shutting down their recruitment and taking no more visits?

The website will be down for a few hours.

You will have to log back in as part of a server change over when you access the site again on Saturday or Sunday.

was let go today

I hope our staff lets all the HS coaches know that we're doing exactly what the P5 schools are doing, scholarship-wise.

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/scholarship-increase-passes-easily/2214125

2016 Miami Norland PF Dewan Huell was at USF today on an unofficial visit for the game vs Tulsa

Kelly, what coaches saw what uncommitted players Thursday?

The annual Wally Keller Classic at Punta Gorda Charlotte HS tips off tonight and continues all day tomorrow. Teams featured in this year's event include: Montverde Academy, Pebblebrook (GA), Potter's House, Miami Norland, Mariner, Tallahassee Godby, Marianna, Tampa Prep, Oak Ridge, Miami Beach, St. Petersburg Gibbs, Zion Lutheran, Sarasota Riverview, Sarasota Christian and Sarasota Cardinal Mooney among others.

I'll be there all day tomorrow in the main gym (the school has an auxiliary gym) and I expect USF to have a coach in the gym evaluating prospects. Unfortunately one of those prospects will not be 2016 Marianna SG Herman Williams as he tore his meniscus and is out of action until AAU season. Williams holds an offer from USF.

They talk about Willie going all in with Ray Ray Mccloud Thursday 1st visit he made yesterday to show he was USFS first priority. Also talked about new USF Running Back Coach Audrey Denson was a Big Time USF recruiting hire for the South Florida area and how Willie plans to bring him in on many in home in the Tampa Bay Area to close the deal. Sounds like a Great hire to try to keep Ray Ray Mccloud home with his brother/cousin USF Starting Linebacker Josh Black.