USF’s historic season ends with loss to VCU in NIT
TAMPA — On a blissful beach day, hundreds of USF students chose to spend their Sunday afternoon waiting in line — some as long as five hours — for tickets to see their historic men’s basketball team one final time at home.
In return, the Bulls and their veteran catalyst rewarded that loyalty with another command performance. Just not a comeback one.
On a night when he nearly willed his cold-shooting team to another improbable second-half rally, USF senior guard Chris Youngblood’s final 3-point attempt with five seconds to play bounced off the back of the rim, essentially preserving Virginia Commonwealth’s 70-65 triumph in the second round of the NIT before a Yuengling Center audience of 6,398.
The defeat ended arguably the most surreal season in the program’s 53-year existence. Picked to finish ninth by league coaches in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll, USF (25-8) won the league’s regular-season title and compiled a program-record 15-game win streak en route to setting a single-season team mark for victories.
“Regardless of the outcome, I’m really proud of this group,” said Bulls first-year coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, who watched his team hit only four of 20 3-point attempts.
“It’s a group that nobody gave a chance to start the season. I don’t even think they took enough time to figure out who was on our roster, they just picked us wherever they were going to pick us, said whatever they were going to say. But as I said to those guys in the locker room, there’s nobody in here that should be hanging their heads.”
Ironically, Youngblood (28 points, six rebounds, two assists) was hanging his seven minutes into the game, but only after awkwardly contorting his neck and wincing in pain on the floor for a couple of moments. By night’s end, he had scored in every conceivable method — penetration and put-backs, slashing and spot-up jumpers — to keep his team within striking distance.
“My teammates, man, just spacing the floor out,” Youngblood said. “We’ve been shooting the mess out of the ball lately, so there was a lot of space on the court, and man, the ball was just going in (Sunday). The game was just going my way.”
When VCU (24-13) built its biggest lead, 58-50 with 7:22 remaining, Youngblood and freshman point guard Jayden Reid sparked a final, furious rally attempt. Youngblood sank a second-chance layup, then found Reid on the perimeter for a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to three points.
He followed with eight consecutive points to keep the Bulls within three in the final 80 seconds.
“When we couldn’t quite get the ball movement going the way we wanted, it’s like, ‘All right, now I’ve got to coach, and now I’ve got to put the ball in the hands of the guys that I know can make things happen,’” Abdur-Rahim said. “And Chris, I thought he did a great job of not only scoring ... but he ended up having two assists. ... I’m not surprised by Chris’ performance, because Chris is a dude.”
AAC Sixth Man of the Year Selton Miguel was fouled on a layup with 21 seconds to play to cut USF’s deficit to 66-65, but he missed the ensuing free throw. VCU followed by going 4 of 4 from the stripe in the final 16.2 seconds to seal things.
“What a player,” VCU coach Ryan Odom said of Youngblood. “Obviously, he got dinged up a couple of times, toughed it out and came back.”
Nearly a comeback for the ages.
For a team that will be ageless in USF annals.
“The journey is the gift,” Abdur-Rahim said. “From where we started to where we finished, they stayed true to each other, they stayed committed to each other. That is the gift. They created lifelong bonds, great memories together.”
Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls
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