Above photo: The USF women’s basketball team powered their way through the regular season and will head into March Madness with a 24-6 record. Courtesy of The USF Sundome
By Michael Fergusson
The USF Women’s basketball team owned the 2017-2018 season.
Before playing first ranked opponent UConn, who is practically a WNBA team disguised as an NCAA team, the Bulls went on a 10-game win streak and finished the regular season with an overall record of 24-6 and an in-conference record of 13-3.
This is not an easy task because the Bulls aren’t playing the “little sisters of the poor” basketball programs. Instead, they play powerhouse teams like Notre Dame, Michigan State, and UConn, as well as Ohio State, who the Bulls upset at home winning by 19 points.
The Bulls were dominant on both sides of the ball — averaging more than 75 points per game and beating opponents by an average margin of 13.5 points per game.
On the defensive end, they averaged more than 5 steals and 3 blocks per game.
The Bulls also dropped 108 points against Southern University to win by 60 points, the largest victory margin of the season.
Head Coach Jose Fernandez should only be showered with praises as he has flipped the script from only having to losing seasons to having only winning ones.
This season also put him over 300 career wins as a head coach and the third time he has coached USF to second place in the American Athletic Conference.
The two stars of the season have been Kitija Laksa and Maria Jespersen.
Kitija, a Latvian native, exploded this season with the Bulls, whether she was dropping a career high 41 points against then-ranked 13 Ohio State or showing Southern University that she can make it rain indoors by dropping a career-high 11 3-pointers in a single game.
Jespersen also had herself a season. Toward its end, the Denmark native averaged 18 points and made all of her free throws through eight games.
This team plays like a family.
On the court, their passing alone shows the selflessness. This is reassuring because there aren’t going to be disputes and arguments that plague a lot of legendary programs.
Come March Madness, the Bulls could become NCAA champions.
