Losses Saturday for USF men’s and women’s basketball leave both teams busy

The basketball arena in North Texas is called the Super Pit, and the USF women’s basketball team has to agree that they named it right. That’s because, Saturday afternoon, that place was the pits for USF, even if there was nothing super about it.

The Bulls fell 72-65 to the Mean Green after being completely outplayed for plus three quarters. USF trailed by 24 points with 8:58 left in the fourth quarter before a furious rally pulled the Bulls within eight points with 3:30 left.

Too little, too late.

There’s too much basketball left in the season to draw conclusions from one game, but we also can’t ignore the implications of a loss Saturday for both the USF men’s and women’s teams.

While the women trailed by 12 at the half, 542 miles away, the men were coming off a 73-70 loss to Tulane. It was the first American Athletic Conference loss for either team, but the men already face a steep climb to return to the NIT themselves.

The Bulls fell six places to 166 overall in the NCAA NET rankings, which are a key factor in selecting at-large teams for postseason play. The Bulls trail AAC members Rice (165), UAB (161), Wichita State (157), Temple (120), Florida Atlantic (97), North Texas (59) and Memphis (37) in the rankings.

That’s a lot of bodies to climb over. That loss to Bethune-Cookman will likely hang around their necks all season.

The women are in better (but not great) shape in the NET rankings.

USF dropped from 59th to 65th in the rankings, but the Bulls are still second among AAC teams, trailing only UTSA (59th). For what it’s worth, North Texas entered the game ranked 148th.

The Bulls have played three teams ranked in the NET Top 10 – South Carolina (2nd), UConn (3rd) and Duke (10th). Even if USF doesn’t win the AAC tournament, the win over Duke will play well when the selection committee gathers — assuming there aren’t more games like Saturday.

The Bulls shot just 34.5 percent from the field and hit just four of 14 3-pointers. They didn’t have an answer for Tommisha Lampkin of the Mean Green, who poured in 29 points and was 7-of-10 from downtown.

She had just eight 3-pointers in her previous three games combined.

The Bulls also can’t afford to be outscored 40-18 in the paint like they were in this game. That includes an 18-2 margin for North Texas in the third quarter.

Both USF teams are back at home this week. The women face UAB on Tuesday, and the men follow a day later, also against UAB.

Is it a bit early to call these critical games?

Nah.