Photo by Jorden Pompey | The Crow’s Nest
By Sofía García Vargas
The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions for USF men’s basketball fans.
With fans eager to see what the team did next after the team’s most successful season in program history, the Bulls have lost five of its main players.
Along the names are senior guard Jose Placer, who will be graduating next month and has no more years of college eligibility left, senior guard Chris Youngblood and junior forward Sam Hines Jr. who entered the transfer portal, senior guard Selton Miguel and junior forward Kasean Pryor who entered the transfer portal and declared for the NBA draft while maintaining NCAA eligibility.
The announcements came as a blow after blow for fans, as not even a week had passed since the season ended when Hines Jr. first announced his decision on March 27 through an Instagram post. Miguel followed on April 5, Youngblood on April 8 and Pryor on April 10.
Despite fans and fellow players flooding the announcement posts with support messages and gratitude for their performance, it is impossible not to feel bittersweet about the upcoming roster changes.
“While you never want to see your top three scorers enter the portal, you gotta look at all the talent still on the roster. Rather than panic, we should rely on our returners who had fantastic seasons. Sure, a lot of people will say we are cooked but we at Barstool USF believe in coach Amir Abdur-Rahim and the reinforcements he has on the way,” one of the administrators of @barstoolusf on Instagram, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Crow’s Nest.
The accomplishments kept stacking throughout the season:
- The program’s first regular-season conference title.
- The 25 victories (and 16 conference wins) were the most in the program’s 53-season history.
- Program record of 15-game winning streak.
- Program record of eight road victories.
- Shot 73.7% from the free-throw line, second-best in program history (behind the 73.8% in 1978-79).
- Shot 36.7% from 3-point range — the best in 22 years — and had a program-record 295 buckets from beyond the arc.
- For the first time since 2007-08, the Bulls had more assists (491) than turnovers (356) as a team.
- Youngblood finished as the team’s leading scorer (15.3 points per game) with 505 points, making him the 15th USF player with at least one 500-point season.
- Abdur-Rahim was named AAC Coach of the Year.
- Youngblood was named the AAC Co-Player of the Year.
- Miguel was named the AAC Sixth Man of the Year and the Most Improved Player.
- Youngblood was a first-team All-AAC selection, while Miguel was a second-team honoree and Reid earned a spot on the AAC All-Freshman team.
- Two victories over top 25 ranked programs – at No. 10 Memphis and vs. No. 24 FAU – the program’s first since the 2011-12 season when USF knocked off Seton Hall (23) and Louisville (19).
- A record crowd of 10,659 for an upset of No. 24 FAU at Yuengling Center, the first of three-straight sellout crowds to end the home season.
- Recorded three straight sellouts to end the regular season at home.
- Total home attendance of 93,642, the fourth-highest total in program history and highest since 2012-13.
However, the players still opted for other paths.
Even though the decisions came as a surprise for some, it didn’t for others as even coach Abdur-Rahim foreshadowed the possibility of some of these players looking toward other horizons.
“We’ll see what happens with the rest of the roster because Kasean Pryor and Selton Miguel, they really helped themselves and I’ve had a number of scouts call me throughout the year asking about them. We’ll see what the feedback is, and we’ll go from there,” he said in the post-game press conference after the team’s season ending loss against Virginia Commonwealth University on March 24.
So far, the only player who has announced his plans has been Youngblood, who will be joining the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide.
“Full circle moment,” he wrote on his Alabama commitment via Instagram. Youngblood is originally from Tuscaloosa, AL.
Now, the question is — who is left on the men’s basketball team?
For now, the players that remain on the team are freshman guard Jayden Reid, sophomore guard Kobe Knox, senior guard Brandon Stroud, senior guard Kasen Jennings, junior forward Corey Walker Jr., sophomore forward Gerald Jones III, freshman guard Nic Smith and freshman center Daniel Tobiloba.
Additionally, last week the team announced the recruitment of Jamille Reynolds, a 6’ 11” senior forward transfer from the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Reynolds is originally from St. Petersburg, FL., and shot 60.4% from the field in 2022-23 and averaged 10.1 points per game in the AAC in 2022-2023.
Despite the changes, there is a common sentiment across the community of trust in the process that coach Abdur-Rahim will lead.
“From a student body standpoint, we’re excited to cheer on whoever is in the green and gold colors with the USF logo. Doesn’t matter who, but we’ll embrace whoever is here. We’re excited for another great season next year,” said Tyler Moss, the student marketer for USF Basketball behind the SoFlo Rodeo.
