Due to Hurricane Ian, the USF men's basketball team pushed back last week’s open practice to Wednesday afternoon. 

There’s a lot of hope at Yuengling center, in preparation for this upcoming season. 

Head Coach Brian Gregory told Spectrum Sports 360's Katya Guillaume, “I thought we had a great summer, a great preseason in the fall with eight returning players, three transfers, and two freshmen.” 

This roster is a huge part of why coach Gregory said he’s excited for this upcoming season. He is entering his sixth year at the helm of this basketball program.

He said, “I’m starting to see guys getting connected a little bit on the court and they’ve done a good job off the court as well so I’m excited about it. It’s a team that practices extremely hard and that’s one of the things in our program that we really value, the day-in and day-out operations and habits of each individual that hopefully will build to a collective unit that can go out there and perform well.”

South Florida is coming off an 8-23 season and coach Gregory is confident that they will turn that around this year.

“I think we’ll get back to playing with the intensity and the toughness that we played with when we had success here," Coach Gregory said. "Having that mental toughness and the physical toughness to create offensive opportunities where you either make baskets or you get offense rebounds, I think this group can do a very good job of that.”

The Bulls will open its season on November 7, with a home game versus Southeast Missouri State, then they head to Auburn. 

Coach Gregory mentioned that starting off the first half with some good non-conference matchups will help them build strength for when they do face a strong team like The University of Houston in January.