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February 16, 2017 Vol. 54 No. 38

Under pressure

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USF Counseling Center fights for funding while trying to keep up with student demand Americans have high levels of stress Page 4

Local markets pop up around Tampa Page 6

USF baseball to try its luck in 2017 Page 10

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the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Editor in Chief Jacob Hoag oracleeditor@gmail.com Managing Editor Miki Shine oraclemeditor@gmail.com Sports Editor Vinnie Portell oraclesportseditor@gmail.com Associate Editor Breanne Williams oracleopinion@gmail.com Lifestyle Editor Nicole Cate oraclelifestyleeditor@gmail.com

Multimedia Editor Jackie Benitez oraclemultimediaeditor@gmail.com

Graphic Artists Destiny Moore Mark Soree

The Oracle is published Monday and Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and once weekly, Wednesday, during the summer.

The Oracle allocates one free issue to each student. Additional copies are $.50 each and available at the Oracle office (SVC 0002).

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news

News Briefs AAA report finds millennials to be worst drivers A recent study released Wednesday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 88 percent of millennials, ages 19-24, engage in “risky behavior” while behind the wheel.

These risky behaviors include texting while driving, running red lights and speeding.

“Alarmingly, some of the drivers ages 19-24 believe that their dangerous driving behavior is acceptable,” said David Yang, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety executive director. “It’s critical that these drivers understand the potentially deadly consequences of engaging in these types of behaviors.”

The report stated that drivers 19-24 were 1.6 times as likely to read a text message while driving and 1.4 times as likely to drive more than 10 MPH over the speed limit compared to other age groups.

The results are based off a survey of 2,511 licensed drivers in the U.S.

MORE COVERAGE ONLINE

Students argue for sanctuary campus

Read it at USFOracle.com

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Counseling Center seeks to accommodate increasing need while fighting for funding

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Investigation request submitted regarding SG president

By Breanne Williams A S S O C I A T E

“We want to be able to provide as much services to the students as we can,” Puccio said. “… With the increased needs for counseling services and the limit of our staff, we’re doing everything possible to meet those needs, but if granted the increased funding, we would be able to provide even more services.”

While the State University System waits to see if more funding will come, Puccio said it’s about the Center making the most of what they have.

“I think the key point is that we’re really trying to make the most out of the personnel that we do have and that there’s many different approaches depending on student response ... and what their needs are at the specific moment that they need help,” Puccio said.

Currently, the Counseling

An investigation request was submitted to the Ethics Committee of Student Government on Feb. 1 by vicepresidential candidate Logan Holland, claiming Student Body President Chris Griffin libeled Holland and his running mate, Ryan Soscia.

The committee dismissed the request Wednesday due to an error on the date.

H o w e v e r, Holland said he resubmitted a fixed Griffin r e q u e s t Wednesday around 4 p.m.

The request states Griffin sought to “damage the reputation” of Holland and Soscia in an attempt to promote their opponents Moneer Kheireddine and Shaquille Kent’s campaign.

Griffin denies any legal wrongdoing.

Kheireddine and Griffin are fraternity brothers and Holland said he always assumed Griffin would support his friend and was not upset over the fact.

Griffin said regardless if Holland resubmitted, he believed the investigation request would again be dismissed.

“I don’t believe I did anything wrong,” Griffin said. “Libel, the definition of libel, is essentially when

n See COUNSELING on PAGE 5

n See SG on PAGE 9

The USF Counseling Center sees around 350 students per week, but currently has only 19 full time clinicians, including the administrative staff. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

By Abby Rinaldi S T A F F

W R I T E R

Despite being denied additional funding during the 2016 legislative session, the State University System is making an effort to get more financial support to staff university counseling centers.

Meanwhile, the USF Counseling Center is trying to manage the increasing need from students with its staff of fewer than 20 clinical professionals by diversifying its services.

The Center sees around 350 students per week, according to Lisa Ferdinand, interim co-director of the Counseling Center at USF. Ferdinand said the Center currently has 19 fulltime clinicians, including the administrative staff.

The ratio of students to counselors is one to just over 2,000, Ferdinand said, which

is above the target range established by the state of one to 1,500.

The Center is feeling the effects of a demand for counseling services that has risen 48 percent since 2008-09 at public universities in Florida, Communications Director for the State University System of Florida Board of Governors Brittany Davis said.

“We know universities are feeling the strain nationally as well,” Davis said in an email to The Oracle. “… The State University System has increased its number of counselors and services to the extent possible, but the demand outpaces the ability to keep up.”

Currently, there is a push in the Florida Legislature to give more funding to Counseling Centers in order to increase staffs. Puccio said this would be a great help to alleviate some of the pressure.

E D I T O R

Opinion

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Americans have frighteningly high levels of stress

By Breanne Williams C O L U M N I S T

Apparently that pit of anxiety that has slowly been building in your chest over the past year that seems to be unable to dissipate is felt by over two-thirds of Americans.

An annual study by the American Psychological Association (APA) conducted in January found we are more stressed over the past year than we have been in a decade.

While the economy and job security are usually the main reasons Americans lay awake at night, this year’s study found a new issue had been added to the list: politics.

“The fact that two-thirds of Americans are saying the future of the nation is causing them stress, it is a startling number,” Vaile Wright, a licensed psychologist and member of APA’s Stress in America team, said.

Not surprisingly, those living in urban locations, minority groups, millennials and those with a college education had the highest levels of stress about the election.

“It seems to suggest that what people thought would happen, that there would be relief [after the election] did not occur, and instead since the election, stress has increased,” Wright said.

“And not only did overall stress increase, what we found in January is the highest significant increase in stress in 10 years. That’s stunning.”

The study found 66 percent of Americans reported anxiety over the future of the country, 57 percent about the current political climate and 49 percent about the outcome of the election.

“It’s not just about who won the election. It’s having a much larger impact, and it likely has to do with this global sense of uncertainty, dividedness and this unprecedented speed of change,” Wright said. “So we try to seek out ways to control it, which is to be informed. And while it’s really important to stay informed right now, there’s a point where you have to know your limits; there’s a saturation point where there isn’t new information.”

Millennials report more stress than any other generation. Over half said they have lain awake at night due to stress over the past month.

Thirty-six percent reported having greater stress in the past year, and college students are more anxious than ever reported, according

to the APA. Millennials are no strangers to stress.

We were children when 9/11 happened and have been at war for the majority of our lives.

We grew up in the Great Recession and have heard our parents whisper about a flopping housing market and a spiraling economy.

We were told a college education was necessary for getting a job, and then that we had to go into STEM programs to get a job capable of paying the bills. Many of us work two jobs, pick up unpaid internships and take out loans to earn the degree we hope launches us into a stable future.

We’ve been surrounded by change.

Human rights have been on the forefront of our minds for decades. According to the Pew Research Center, 71 percent of millennials support same sex marriage, 76 percent say immigrants strengthen the country and over half claim to be political independents.

We grew up under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, two very different leaders. Partisan environments are our norm.

As different politically as Bush and Obama were, they never handled running the nation quite like Donald Trump.

A “not a Muslim ban” Muslim ban was implemented within his first week, an executive order was written to begin plans on building a wall on the southern border, construction on the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines was renewed and the Affordable Care Act is being torn apart in an effort to allegedly save money.

Foreign leaders mock our new president and he does not seem interested in fostering peaceful relationships with our allies. Every day we receive alerts on a new and more insane decision made by the administration.

Not to mention the fact that the rest of the world seems to be spiraling into war, rebellions and natural disasters everywhere we look.

It’s maddening.

So yes, millennials are stressed.

At the end of the day, our generation is going to face the most repercussions of the decisions made in the next four years. We are going to take the brunt of these political actions and we — hopefully — will be the ones to remedy them.

Breanne Williams is a majoring in mass communications.

senior

Americans are facing the highest levels of stress in a decade, according to a new study by the American Psychological Association. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

SOURCE: American Psychological Association

Court finds divestment referendum constitutional

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The Student Government Supreme Court deemed a controversial referendum constitutional and it will be put on the student ballot this year. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

By Miki Shine M A N A G I N G

E D I T O R

The controversial topic of divestment of the USF Foundation will be sent to the student body after the Student Government (SG) Supreme Court deemed a student referendum constitutional.

The referendum, titled “USF Divest From Fossil Fuels, Private Prisons and Companies Complicit in Human Rights Violations,” calls for the Foundation to end investments in companies that have a direct connection with contributing to the use of fossil fuels, funding private prisons and investing “in human rights violations in Palestine and Yemen.”

The referendum was presented to SG as a petition to get on the election ballot. The petition had 3,465 signatures, according to Sen. Nick Stevens. In order to get on the ballot, the signatures needed to be verified and the court to deem it constitutional.

Of the five justices who saw the case, three ultimately agreed that the referendum should go on the ballot.

The referendum, if passed, would be non-binding and wouldn’t require action on the part of the university or the Foundation. According to USF

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Spokesman Adam Freeman, The Foundation listened to student concerns about where it invests in May of 2014 and came to a decision then.

“The issue of divestment has been proposed numerous times since 2013, either through student elections, student petitions or Student Government, often led by the same student organization or group of students,” Freeman said in a previous statement to the Oracle. “Since the issue was already considered by the USF Foundation, it will not be taken up again or voted on at future meetings.”

The issue of divestment has come up several times over the past few years.

A similar referendum made it to the ballot in 2013, which led to then-Student Body President Brian Goff issuing an apology to the student body for inconsistencies with Florida Statutes and USF policies.

That referendum only discussed divestment from companies purportedly complicit in human rights violations.

Last spring, the issue came up to the SG Senate in the form of a resolution that was ultimately deemed unconstitutional by the court for targeting a specific group and violating Senate statutes

by calling for a committee of students, staff and faculty.

The current referendum also calls for a committee of students, staff and faculty to “screen unethical investments” made by the USF Foundation.

The referendum is expected to appear on this year’s ballot.

The court evaluated it based on validity, consistency and constitutionality.

Assuming approval of the signatures, the court found the referendum valid.

After some initial confusion based on what would actually be presented on the ballot, the court also ruled that the referendum was consistent. Finally, the court voted unanimously that the language in the referendum is constitutional.

“It is (the) decision of the majority of the USF Supreme Court that Student Referendum 57-001 passes all constitutional conformity prongs necessary for referendum review required by statutes and the Student Body Constitution,” the official opinion states.

Associate Justice Sierra Francis abstained from the decision.

Milton Llinas, the court’s Chief Justice, disagreed with the majority ruling and is expected to release a dissenting opinion later this week.

COUNSELING Continued from PAGE 3

Center is funded by the student health fee, with a total budget of $2,463,751 for this year, according to Ferdinand.

Ferdinand and Puccio said the Center has diversified its services with the staff that it has in order to meet demand at USF. “So in addition to individual counseling ... we also have many different groups that students can participate in,” Ferdinand said.

“We also started using a program called TAO Connect, which is an online therapy assistive program, so that students can use lots of video conferencing.

We can use video conferencing to communicate with students in between in-person sessions and students can also use a lot of video modules in between sessions …”

The Center has also introduced goal-oriented and solution focused model of counseling.

Students usually meet for an average of three to four sessions, Ferdinand said, and after two to three sessions, students are seeing improvement in their symptoms. The Counseling Center also has drop-in groups and information on their website for students to use in between sessions, and there is always an on-call counselor available every day.

Near the end of the semester, the Center offers shorter sessions in order to see more students during their busiest periods.

Davis said this kind of response to demand can be seen across the system. The challenges that the centers still face is setting up appointments in a timely manner and making sure students can keep coming back as needed.

“Specific issues include reduced time for prevention and outreach, longer wait times for students with non-critical needs, less effective treatments, staff burnout and turnover, and saturated or limited community resources,” Davis said in an email.

“These needs can be addressed through more counselors.

“In the meantime, the universities will continue to not have the resources they need, which can impact grades, retention and safety. Our hope is that we can effectively make the case about the need to secure additional funds for

mental health counselors and law enforcement.”

Ferdinand said what is important is to reach students and be able to provide them service before they reach a point where they are in a crisis. The goal is to keep students who aren’t in distress right now from getting to that point. “… We never want students who are not in crisis to feel like they don’t have access to services, so we try to make sure that our model operates so that regardless of your level of distress, you’re able to get an appointment, because what’s happened at some other counseling centers is that only students who are sort of in acute crisis are able to get appointments quickly,” she said.

Despite this stress on the staff, Ferdinand said students will not be put on a waitlist at USF’s Counseling Center. There are also walk-in sessions and a postdoctoral psychologist in Student Health Services who students can see if mental problems are causing physical symptoms.

According to Davis, 4,200 visits to counseling centers in the State University System during the 2013-14 academic year were emergency or crisis visits. Of those, most were associated with depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts.

“We are working to help the public understand that many of these are serious cases,” Davis said in an email. “While there has been some public discussion about ‘delicate snowflakes,’ those are not the students we are talking about here.”

Davis said comparisons made by two universities between students who used counseling center services and those who didn’t showed that use of the centers helped improve the students’ academic performance.

With the push for money to fund more staff still happening up in Tallahassee, Ferdinand said she is confident that the Counseling Center can continue to provide quality service for students in the meantime.

“Ideally, we should have many more resources and that would allow us to do more outreach, more consultation and offer different kinds of access, but I think with the resources we have we’ve been very strategic and creative and innovative in trying to continue to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of the students,” she said.

LIFESTYLE

Bay Area local markets to visit 6

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By Nicole Cate L I F E S T Y L E

merchant, can only be found at Tampa Indie Flea.

Interested parties can find out more at TheIndieFlea.com and follow them on Instagram at @indieflea.

E D I T O R

The past five years have been busy for the Tampa Bay area, with many local residents commenting on how quickly the region has developed. This expansion has included a large number of local businesses, as well as a growing young adult population.

While many millennials have been told that their degrees, and by extension futures, have been deemed worthless because of what is viewed as an unstable job market, quite a few are taking the leap to follow their passions and start their own businesses.

Local markets lend an entrepreneurial hand to recent endeavors.

Becoming increasingly popular in the past several years, Bay Area local markets draw thousands of attendees who come out to support unique and local businesses. They are all pet-andfamily friendly, but students will find that they each bring something different and exclusive to the table.

St. Pete Indie Market In 2012, Rosey Williams owned a pop-up vintage store in St. Petersburg. She started inviting her friends to sell their products on the sidewalk outside her shop. Some even did live paintings and artwork.

“It was super casual and it started catching on to other people,” Williams said. “We ended up starting to fill the whole sidewalk. It started wrapping around the block.”

This was when she realized it was “a real thing.” She ended up closing her store to solely manage the market, which moved to Green Bench Brewery, and the St. Pete Indie Market was born.

She loves the market because of how it helps small and local businesses. Shortly after starting St. Pete Indie, some of its vendors got requests from retailers who wanted to sell these items

Pierce Street Market

At markets like Pierce Street in Clearwater, patrons can buy locally sourced artwork and food to support businesses in the area. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE. in their stores.

“The coolest thing was seeing from when it started then, and how it was sort of (the vendors’) side project,” Williams said.

“Now at this point, they’re able to fully sustain a small business between all of the markets and the other projects that they’re able to do through their businesses.”

Students can check out over 80 vendors on the first Saturday of every month from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Occasionally, there are also pop-up markets that boast about 25 vendors, such as last year’s nighttime pop up at The Bends and Mother’s Day pop up at Station House.

Some of their oldest vendors who can still be found at this market are O’Berry’s Succulents, Ash Couture and Stoned and Charming Jewelry.

Students who are interested in visiting the event, or applying to have their business appear

there, can find out more at StPeteIndieMarket.com and follow them on Instagram at @indiemarket.

Tampa Indie Flea Along with business partner Seanissey Louchlin, Williams operates the sister market to St. Pete Indie, Tampa Indie Flea, on the third Sunday of every month from 12 - 4 p.m.

“Two years ago, a friend of mine approached me about starting a market in Tampa and that was something we already talked about,” Williams said. “So, I ended up partnering with him, and we launched the Tampa Indie Flea in 2015.”

The second local market under her hat, Williams said this is all a part of their bigger brand, Indie Collective.

“That represents the relationship we have with the vendors in the local area, even travelling

makers, who are able to make it to these local markets that make it so we’re not saturating the area,” she said.

This is only the beginning, as they started Gainesville Indie Flea in October, and they are already looking to expand to other cities.

As for a difference between St. Pete Indie and Tampa Indie, Williams said it’s more than their locations.

“It’s a different style, and we definitely try to do that on purpose,” she said. “It’s geared more towards Tampa.”

Tampa Indie Flea also had its first pop-up market on Saturday at The Bricks in Ybor City for Valentine’s Day. Many of the vendors decided to gear their products toward the holiday for that pop up.

While most events have common vendors, there are some students can only catch at specific markets. Vendors such as Commune and Co., a coffee

Pierce Street Market came about in October 2015 when Natalie Nagengast, owner of the jewelry company Coco & Marie, was walking along the waterfront in downtown Clearwater and “thought it would be nice to have a local market there,” according to Madai Gutierrez, the market’s director.

The market started with 40 vendors, and now hosts an average of 100 for every event. Some of its oldest vendors are Tropical Sea Sponges, a sustainable sea sponge and soap merchant, and Good Vibes Juice Co., an organic cold-pressed juice company.

Students can also go grocery shopping at Pierce Street as Aurora Fresh Produce and Healthy Heritage Grass-fed Beef are regular booth renters.

The market boasts a picturesque waterfront view along Drew Street, as well as being the only local market where someone can find fresh flowers. It also provides various food trucks and live music.

Apart from family, friends and pets, Gutierrez asks that attendees travel with one more thing.

“Bring reuseable bags,” she said “We’re trying to stay green, definitely along the waterfront.”

As a part of its regular season, Pierce Street Market is open on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from October to April from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Starting May 13, it will run on the second Saturday of every month from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., until September 9.

Those who plan on visiting Pierce Street and wish to perform or have their business featured there, should go to PierceStreetMarket.com and follow them on Instagram at @piercestreetmarket.

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SG presidential candidates prepare for first debate

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By Chelsea Grosbeck S T A F F

W R I T E R

The two Student Government presidential nominees will go head-to-head this evening in an attempt to gain voters’ attention in their first debate of the campaign.

Doors to the Marshall Student Center Ballroom open at 6 p.m. and the candidates are allowed to campaign among the crowd. Promptly at 7 p.m., presidential candidates Moneer Kheireddine and Ryan Soscia will participate in the hour-long debate.

This year, guidelines have been moderately changed.

Rather than taking questions from student submissions, the Election Rules Commission (ERC) supervisor created questions with the goal of having more accurate relevancy to the candidate’s respective campaigns than in the past, according to Jennifer Bieden, assistant director of

SG

Continued from PAGE 3

you knowingly say or write something false about a person to damage their reputation. I didn’t say anything I knew to be false.”

According to Griffin, he sent a few messages to friends he knew were considering voting for Holland and Soscia after learning the candidates were attempting to “dig up some dirt” on him and his presidency, and informed his friends of the development.

However, Holland said he and Soscia never searched for information pertaining to Griffin prior to the campaign.

“We worked with Chris this term,” Holland said. “Ryan was the (Chief Financial Officer) and I was Attorney General. We saw and witnessed everything that’s happened this term and that Chris has done, so I didn’t need to go looking for things or digging for things because I was there until Dec. 18 when I resigned.”

Holland said he hadn’t seen anything regarding Griffin’s

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government advising, training and operations.

David Payne, associate professor and interim chair of the communications department, will be moderating and reviewed the list of questions suggested by the ERC before picking 10-15 for the debate.

Topics will range from academics to university-scale subjects, according to Bieden.

Wednesday, the joint Presidential and Vice Presidential Ticket Debate will feature a similar format — except campaigning before the event will not be permitted, and it will be moderated by former Student Body President, Brian Goff, and Vice President George Papadeas.

“We highly encourage students outside of the staff campaign to attend,” Bieden said. “This allows undecided voters (to) make a sound judgment on who to vote for.”

Current Student Body President Chris Griffin (left) participates in a 2016 debate.

ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

ethics while in office that would be cause for concern.

Griffin said this is an attempt to boost their campaign. He said it’s much easier to say, “SG is bad and corrupt and we are going to fix it” than it is to say, “SG is doing good things and we want to continue that.”

Prior to learning Holland and Soscia were attempting to “dig up some dirt” on him, Griffin said he had not been vocal about who he planned to support.

Holland said this was not an election problem or complaint and had no plans on bringing the issue up in the upcoming debates.

“Shaquille Kent is a good guy and when I spoke to him personally he said, ‘Look if I’d known he was doing this, I would never, ever, ever have let him do this’ and I believe Shaquille when he said that,” Holland said.

Unless a special session is called, the ethics committee will meet next Wednesday at its normal time of 2 p.m. and will review the newly submitted investigation request.

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Sports

USF Baseball ready to test its luck in 2017 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

The Rundown Outside USF

Texas governor criticizes NFL Quote of the day

Baseball

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“We don’t care what the NFL thinks and certainly what their political policies are because they are not a political arm of the state of Texas or the Gov. Abbott United States of America. They need to learn their place in the United States, which is to govern football, not politics.”

— Texas Governor Greg Abbott on the NFL trying to threaten taking away hosting Super Bowls in the state of Texas due to the state’s “discriminatory” bathroom bill pertaining to transgenders.

Weekend sports schedule Baseball

Iowa @ USF When: Friday - Sunday Where: USF Baseball Stadium

Women’s Basketball

Temple (20-5, 10-2) @ USF (20-5, 9-3) When: Sunday, 1 p.m.

Where: USF Sun Dome

Men’s Basketball USF (7-18, 1-13) @ Tulane (4-20, 1-11) When: Saturday, 2 p.m.

Where: New Orleans, L.A.

Football

Two Bulls to put dreams to the test at NFL Combine

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

After fielding nearly an entire team of freshmen on some nights in an injury-filled 2016 season, USF baseball coach Mark Kingston (middle) said the Bulls have more weapons at their disposal in 2017.

ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

E D I T O R

There might not have been anyone on campus that was as familiar with Murphy’s Law as the USF Baseball team was in 2016.

Already working with a roster that included 16 true freshmen from a national top-10 recruiting class, coach Mark Kingston’s team was ravaged by injuries even before last season could begin.

“Last year was a tough year for us for a lot of different reasons,” Kingston said. “Our team has worked extremely hard since that season ended, evaluating every part of the program to make sure that what happened last year to us, for some reasons in our control and some out of our control, it never happens again.

“No disrespect to last year’s team, but we had to deal with a lot of adversity. Knock-on-wood so far this year the guys appear

to be at full strength and we’ve seen a lot of improvement on the pitching staff.”

The Bulls lost two of their top recruits when freshmen pitchers Shane McLanahan and Matthew Sellers had to have Tommy John surgery after injuries in spring practices. It wasn’t long before junior college transfer pitcher Peter Strzelecki joined them on the bench with the same injury.

When the season began, the injuries didn’t stop.

Several key players missed weeks at a time, including starters Kevin Merrell and Luke Maglich.

Roughly halfway through the season, starting catcher and cleanup hitter Luke Borders was lost for the season due to a bacterial infection.

The Bulls stumbled to a 24-33 record, far from their NCAA Tournament appearance and 34-26-1 record of the year before.

“When you come in as a freshman, there’s a definite learning curve,” Merrell said. “Sometimes

it takes a little longer than others, but I’ve learned a lot from coach and he’s been a huge, huge help in my development.

Like with our freshmen last year, the experience they got last year was invaluable.

“Going into this year, that’s going to make them so much better. That’s the biggest thing is going out there, getting experience and getting comfortable.”

Now, Kingston is fielding a healthy roster for the first time in years and his freshman have since matured. The difference in this year’s team is tough to prognosticate, which is why Kingston said he isn’t paying attention to the projections.

“There’s been a few polls come out and I think we’ve been as low as six and as high as four and everywhere in between,” Kingston said. “The way I’m looking at it, they just don’t know what our personnel looks like. We’re going to look at it as

n See LUCK on PAGE 11

E D I T O R

In a matter of weeks, hundreds of elite athletes from across the nation, including two former Bulls, will have their dreams either realized or crushed.

The 2017 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Indiana, runs from Feb. 28 March 6 and will test football players on a variety of mental and physical skills to assess their readiness for the NFL. Following a record-breaking 11-win season, wide receiver Rodney Adams and running back Marlon Mack will be representing USF in Indianapolis.

When Adams takes the field for his workout on March 4, he’ll be doing so with a purpose even more dear to his heart than advancing his career in football.

Adams lost his mother in a car accident shortly before coming to USF, and now he’s using his talents to give back to kids who have been put in situations like he was.

“Not many people know this, but my mom was pretty much my best friend,” Adams wrote on his Instagram account. “She is the main reason why I am who I am, and where I am today. Not many people know this either, but my mom died in a car accident not much more than a year ago.

“I know what it’s like to lose a parent at a young age, and I know the feeling of loneli-

n See COMBINE on PAGE 11

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T H E O R AC L E

Men’s Basketball

Bulls trail wire-to-wire in 20th straight loss against ranked opponents

Former Bulls receiver Rodney Adams set the receptions (67) and receiving yards (822) records at USF in 2016.

ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

COMBINE

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The leading scorer with 19 points, and only Bull to score in double digits, Geno Thorpe said the turnovers were the Bulls’ biggest issue in the defeat.

“We had 21 turnovers tonight,” Thorpe said. “They are a good ball club, so I give credit to them, but having 21 turnovers is still really bad.”

Despite the loss, interim coach Murry Bartow said he was pleased with the fight his team had throughout, no matter what the scoreboard read.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of teams that when you’re down by 20, it can soon turn to 30 points, really quick,” Bartow said. “If you’re playing a top-20 team and you quit, you get beat by 35. That’s just what happens.”

Trailing by 24 with just two

minutes remaining, the Bulls maintained their fight, closing the game on a 12-2 run.

Searching for a bright spot in the defeat, Bartow was more than pleased with the play of freshman Tulio Da Silva. Grabbing 11 rebounds, the redshirt freshman set the tone on the boards, challenging a Cincinnati team that averages the most rebounds per game in the conference.

“We out-rebounded them by three, which was encouraging since they’re one of the top rebounding teams in the country,” Bartow said.

“Tulio recording 11 was a big part of that, and that’s really encouraging going forward.”

The Bulls will be back in action on Saturday at Tulane (4-21, 1-11), with the chance to move out of last place in the conference with a win.

ness and sadness that this can cause.”

To help kids who have also lost a parent, Adams is raising money by asking people to pledge money based off his vertical jump at the Combine. People can make donations at pledgeit. org/Rodney-adams and will have to pay a corresponding dollar amount for how many inches Adams jumps in Indianapolis.

According to his pledge page, Adams has estimated that he will jump roughly 33 inches at the Combine.

Joining Adams in Indianapolis during the first weekend of March will be former running back Marlon Mack.

The record-setting former Bull has been spending the time leading up to the Combine training at Bommarito Performance Systems in Davie, Florida, where NFL players such as Le’Veon

I happen to think we’re going to be better than most people think.”

Most of USF’s positional players will remain where they were in 2016, as Maglich, last season’s right fielder, is the only nonreturning starter in the field.

Though Kingston and the Bulls lost one of their weekend starters and their closer when Brandon Lawson and Tommy Eveld were drafted over the offseason, the third-year coach said the team’s

pitching is far beyond where it was in 2016.

While it remains unclear exactly who will be joining Sanders in the weekend rotation, Kingtson said it likely could be made up of a few of the pitchers who didn’t get to see the field last year, with McLanahan and Strzelecki being considered for those other weekend starts.

“I think our pitching is far ahead of where it was last year,” Kingston said. “We lost two real-

ly good ones to the pro draft last year in Lawson and Eveld, but the depth of guys, when you factor in our injured guys who are now returning, you factor in some new players from this year’s recruiting class, and you talk about the continued growth that Billy Mohl has done with guys like (Sanders), I feel a lot better about our options going into this season.”

Replacing Eveld at the back end of games will be some com-

USF guard Geno Thorpe’s 19 points weren’t enough to make up for the Bulls’ 21 turnovers in their 14-point loss to Cincinnati on Wednesday. ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

By Josh Fiallo S T A F F

W R I T E R

The stout defense of No. 17 Cincinnati proved to be too much for USF, handing the Bulls their 20th straight loss against a ranked opponent.

Plagued by turnovers from the start, USF (7-18, 1-13) never led in a 68-54 defeat to Cincinnati at the Sun Dome on Wednesday night — keeping the Bulls at the bottom looking up in the AAC. Playing in front of 2,679 fans, a large portion in Cincinnati red, the Bulls’ offense was under constant pressure by the Bearcats. USF committed four turnovers on four straight possessions to open the game, as the Bearcats jumped out to an 8-0 run and never looked back.

LUCK

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if they don’t know about Shan McLanahan, they don’t know about the improvement of Kevin Merrell, they don’t know about the improvement of Phoenix Sanders, they don’t know what our recruiting class looks like.

“So how could anyone really know how good we’re going to be? That’s our approach, and

Bell, Ezekiel Elliot and Rob Gronkowski train.

Mack said he’s altered his diet with the intention of getting leaner and adding a few pounds to further impress scouts.

In preparation for the NFL Draft, Mack has hired GoalLine Football to be his manage his career at the next level.

“We took Marlon on because he was a highly productive player in college,” Steven Feld of GoalLine Football said in an email interview with The Oracle.

“The USF all time leading rusher.

He’s a great kid from a great family. He has all the intangibles to be a good player at the next level.”

Though it was a tough decision, Mack said he feels he’s ready for the next level after already accomplishing so much at USF. “My prime motivation in entering the draft was that I believe in my talent, I believe that I’m ready to take on the NFL,” Mack said. bination of sophomore Andrew Perez and senior Michael Farley, who Kingston said have stood out in practice. He said he still had final decisions to make on a couple of guys, as he rounds out both his rotation and the bullpen.

The Bull will have the chance to try their luck in the 2017 season when Sanders takes the mound Friday night at 6:30 at the USF Baseball Stadium as USF hosts Iowa.

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