3-23-17

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March 23, 2017

Vol. 54 No. 47

“First and foremost, you have the challenge of the perception of the program.”

Despite challenges, new men’s basketball coach is up to the task Page 14

USF hosts sports Tampa needs to rethink homeless problem analytics conference Page 3

Page 6

Mixing business and pleasure Page 11

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

Editor in Chief Jacob Hoag oracleeditor@gmail.com

Associate Editor Breanne Williams oracleopinion@gmail.com Multimedia Editor Jackie Benitez

News........................................................3 Opinion.................................................6 Classifieds..........................................10 Crossword.........................................10 Lifestyle................................................12 Sports....................................................14

Advertising Sales Alyssa Alexander Ashley Bazile Destiny Moore Dylan Ritchey

oraclemultimediaeditor@gmail.com

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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The Index

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Managing Editor Miki Shine oraclemeditor@gmail.com Sports Editor Vinnie Portell oraclesportseditor@gmail.com

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CORRECTIONS The Oracle will correct or clarify factual errors.

Contact Editor in Chief Jacob Hoag at 974-5190.

news

News Briefs Pride comes to Tampa

Tampa’s third Pride festival will be this Saturday near Hillsborough Community College (HCC) In Ybor City.

Festivities start at 10 a.m. and end with a Steve Grand concert at 4 p.m. This year’s theme is “Community Super Heroes.”

The festival includes over 140 vendors and Street Food Ally, with a tribute to the community at noon. This year, the tribute will include Tampa Bay Pride Marching Band, the Key West Sea to Sea Rainbow Flag, and Pulse Night Club owner Barbara Poma, along with 100 survivors, friends of victims and Orlando First Responders.

At noon, the parade, which includes over 120 groups, will travel from 7th Avenue to 20th Street.

Attack injures over 40 people in London A terrorist attack in London on Wednesday killed at least five people, including the assailant, and left at least 40 others injured, according to the New York Times. The assailant drove his car into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge before crashing and making his way on foot toward Parliament.

He stabbed a police officer before being shot by police.

According to the New York Times, this is the “most serious assault on London since the deadly subway bombings more than a decade ago.”

A science and an art UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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St. Pete Police looking for men alleged to have USF hosts third annual Sports and punched USF Entertainment Analytics Conference student ●

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Survailance video of three men suspected to have punched a USF student. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

By Miki Shine M A N A G I N G

Arkansas high school coach Kevin Kelley, who will discuss his “no punt” policy attitudes, uses analytics to take the emotion out of his coaching decisions. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

By Jacob Hoag E D I T O R

I N

C H I E F

From tracking where fans stop in a stadium to better locate potential spots for stores and restaurants to tracking probabilities of a game to develop innovative strategies, analytics have become an integral part of today’s sports and entertainment industry.

The various ways in which analytics have overtaken the industry will be showcased as part of the USF Sports and Entertainment Analytics

Conference from March 29-30 in the USF Alumni Center.

“A lot of people struggle to really understand what analytics are,” said Mike Mondello, professor of marketing at the Muma College of Business and associate director of the USF Sport and Entertainment Management program.

“Some people’s perception of analytics is about a bunch of equations on a board and algorithms. While that’s part of it, there’s much more to it.

The conference is a big step up from Mondello’s “Analytics Day,” which he held in one of his classes with just a few speakers.

“I would have four or five speakers come in and give their thoughts on what was happening in the industry for one class period,” Mondello said.

Now in its third year, the conference is drawing speakers that have spoken

n See ANALYTICS on PAGE 7

E D I T O R

The St. Petersburg Police Department is still looking for three men who reportedly punched a USF engineering student, leaving him in critical condition.

The incident happened around 2 a.m. Saturday outside of Detroit Liquors in St. Pete. One of the men allegedly punched student Brian Neal, 26, knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall backward and hit his head on the concrete.

He was taken to the hospital with “very serious injuries” as the men took off, according to police.

A surveillance video has circulated on social media of the three men walking casually down the street after the incident.

St. Pete Police said they have received some tips on the identity of the men involved, but are still looking for more information.

Anyone with information about the incident can contact the St. Pete Police Department at 727893-7780.

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Author Yaa Gyasi shares her method of writing T H U R S DAY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 7

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By Miki Shine M A N A G I N G

E D I T O R

New York Times bestselling author Yaa Gyasi described her writing process of “Homegoing” during her speech Wednesday evening at the Alumni Center as “making it up as she went along.”

“In the early days of writing this novel, I used to describe it as a fishtail braid; two sections feeding into each other, one after another,” Gyasi said. “The beginning of the novel was quite clear to me from the start.”

“Homegoing” follows the descendants of two women who were held at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana; one as a slave to be traded, and the other as the wife of an English soldier. Each chapter talks about a different character descended from one of these two women.

“I didn’t know at first that they would be sisters, I didn’t know at first that I would follow down the lines to present day,” she said. “Now, you have some insight into my very refined process, which basically consists of making it all up as I go along.”

Her vision first came when she visited the slave castle the book’s first two chapters takes place in during a trip to Ghana.

“I wish I could describe to you what it felt like to stand in those dungeons,” she said.

“They still smell. Even though centuries have passed, they’re still covered in grime. The death can’t be washed away from those walls. I knew that day, in that castle, that I wanted to write about that history.”

However, she said it’s hard to know when the book really first started in her mind, saying it could have been when she was engrossed with reading as a child, or during that trip.

“I read because I was bored,” she said. “I read because the public library was free. I read because I was lonely. By the time I turned 10, I had already lived in three countries and four states. Moving at this rate made it difficult to accumulate and maintain friendships.

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“I cannot say that I truly believe that loneliness made me a writer or that I find loneliness necessary or conducive to the act of writing itself. But I will say that most days of my own transient childhood, I felt unknowable and unseeable, and the only solace I could find from that feeling was within the pages of books.”

It took Gyasi seven years to write “Homegoing,” and she said the first three were spent looking in the wrong direction.

Originally, the book was going to be focused on two characters in modern time looking back at stories they’d been told about their family and life in Ghana.

“I thought this would be enough,” Gyasi said. “But as I worked, I started to feel as though I was taking the easy way out by not following the legacy of slavery as it shifted gradually over time.”

Gyasi, originally from Ghana, but immigrated to the U.S. as a toddler, said she didn’t feel a responsibility to anyone in the beginning of writing, but that feeling started to change as she worked more on the book.

“When I was writing the first part of this book, it felt so deeply personal and also it began with … you’re not really sure whether anybody else is going to see it or not,” she said.

“So I didn’t really feel any sort of responsibility until later when I started to do a little bit more intimate research and write those earlier chapters.”

“Homegoing” has been out for almost a year and is a New York Times bestseller. Gyasi said one of the reactions she’s heard while on tour that she hadn’t expected was that the book inspired others to start researching their genealogy.

“The fun thing about literature, certainly from a reader’s perspective, not always from the writer’s perspective, is that it is this relationship between readers and writers,” she said. “After you finish a book, in some ways it no longer belongs to you, it’s kind of up to people to determine what it is, what it means, what it’s legacy will be.”

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New York Times bestselling author Yaa Gyasi shared her story Wednesday night about how she went about writing her novel “Homegoing.” ORACLE PHOTO/MIKI SHINE

Opinion

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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City needs to rethink answer to helping homeless

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What you said The new men’s basketball coach, Brian Gregory, was introduced today. Associate Editor Breanne Williams asked students if they’ve gone to the games, and if not, what it would take to get them to go.

“No. I’ll go when they start winning.”

- Zachary Tedesco, a freshman majoring in education

Instead of using force to “handle” homeless issue, cities should adopt programs to hire them.

SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

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

Hillsborough County has recently been labeled a “dumping ground” for the homeless.

Other cities send those suffering from homelessness here in an attempt to clean up their own streets.

The number of those calling the streets home is growing, and the city seems at a loss on how to handle it.

First, they made panhandling illegal. Then, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office established a homeless outreach center, allocating five deputies working out of the four districts to cover the county.

In August, a federal judge ruled the panhandling ban was unconstitutional.

Days prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship, seven people were arrested for feeding the homeless downtown. The charges were dropped, but the sentiment remained. Tampa desperately wants to clean up its streets, and is obviously at a loss at how best to do so.

Tampa has failed to successfully “handle” its homeless problem. Rather than continue to utilize tactics that obviously haven’t worked, it should adopt the practices of other cities like Portland.

In Portland, the city was also

facing issues with the homeless.

In 2013, they also outlawed panhandling.

It too was struck down, and the city bulldozed a popular strip in the middle of a road in hopes of dissuading people from standing there to ask for money.

Not surprisingly, the plans all failed and the homeless continued to make money the only way they really could, by standing on the streets asking for help.

But unlike Tampa, Portland decided to get creative with a solution. The city did what so few do; it recognized the homeless were people in need of help and not simply a “problem” to be solved.

So, the city decided to do a quid pro quo arrangement.

Starting in April, the city will begin to hire the homeless to clean parks and public spaces. They will receive minimum wage, $10.68 an hour, with hopes some of the jobs can become full-time positions with the city, city manager Jon Jennings said in an interview with the New York Times.

“It’s so they don’t feel the need to stand on a corner and ask for money, and they can move on to a life of productivity,” Jennings said. “We are a city that really embraces people who, of no fault of their own, fall on hard times.”

And this tactic has been proven to work.

In Albuquerque, job programs that pay $9 an hour have provided over 1,750 jobs and over 60 tons of litter have been removed.

Chicago pays $55 a day for trash pickup, which helps many afford housing and groceries.

Tampa needs to adopt a similar program. We are a city flooded with culture, a prospering economy and gorgeous scenery.

The city’s Parks and Recreation is responsible for 3,500 acres of parkland, with over 170 parks, 23 community centers, 14 aquatic facilities and more than 60 miles of multi-purpose trails.

Hiring some of those who are going through a period of difficulty will not only benefit them, but also benefit this great city. If they have money to spend, our economy prospers. If they are given jobs beautifying the city, Tampa prospers. It’s a win-win.

It’s easy to resort to force to “clean up the streets,” but no one truly benefits from having panhandlers punished. As soon as we remember they’re people, not a headache, we can work toward bettering their lives and in turn, our own.

Breanne Williams is a senior majoring in mass communications.

“No, if they’d stop the basketball game to do stand-up comedy, I would go.”

-Jacob Lenamond, a sophomore majoring in mass communications

“No. I don’t even want a good team. I want a mediocre team and I would go.”

- Garrett Walker, a junior majoring in finance

“If I knew people that went to men’s basketball games, I would go.”

- Arielle Teets, a junior majoring in psychology

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ANALYTICS

Continued from PAGE 3

around the country, including the highly regarded MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

Among the more notable names are Jessica Gelman, CEO of Kraft Analytics Group and co-founder of the MIT Sloan conference, and Kevin Kelley, an Arkansas high school football coach known for his “no punt” policy.

“Kevin Kelley is certainly a non-traditional football coach in a lot of ways,” Mondello said. “For him, it’s all about letting the data drive some of the decision making and taking some of the emotion out.”

Kelley, who never punts and almost always elects to onside kick, is one of the first coaches to embrace analytics and use them to his advantage, according to Mondello.

Other speakers include Joe Brown, senior vice president

of strategic insights with the NBC Sports Group; Adam Jones, director of sports advisory services with PricewaterhouseCoopers; Chris Kamke, senior director of business strategy and analytics with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Akshay Khanna, vice president of strategy with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Mondello said most, if not all, of the speakers he has chosen are from conferences or lectures that he has attended and heard them speak at. Though some speakers are returning from last year’s conference, he said he tries to rotate enough of them to keep the lineup fresh.

Analytics have begun to form a solid role in the Muma College of Business curriculum since Mondello got to USF five years ago. In his first year at the school, he designed a new course centered on sports analytics, and soon after the college began to offer minors.

Mondello said the program

strives to develop five key skills in its students when it comes to analytics: ask the right questions, collect the data, model the data, understand the results and communicate the results to different audiences.

“The Muma College of Business has really embraced analytics and creativity as two areas that it really wants to be thought leaders for higher education,” Mondello said. “We were trying to use analytics or at least parts of analytics in a lot more of our courses.”

Registration is open, with prices ranging from $99 for professionals to $75 for nonUSF students to $50 for USF students and faculty.

The conference will run from 1-6 p.m. on March 29 and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 30.

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Classifieds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

To place a classified ad go to ANNOUNCEMENTS

myAPAeditor@gmail.com Swim Instructors: FT/PT multiple Tampa area locations. $12-$15/hr apply at www.sharksandminnows.com (800) 511-7946 or Fax (407)699-8103

Crossword

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http://www.usforacle.com/classifieds

HELP WANTED

FOR SALE/MISCELLANEOUS

Super motivated college student sought for surgical office work in Tampa.

Flexible hours 20-30 / week. Must have excellent touch-typing speed and accuracy and pleasant disposition and superb people and telephone skills. Must be able to use Mac OS. You will definitely learn new careerenhancing skills and be an integral part of a dynamic office. Position available immediately. E-mail resume to: WHC4728@gmail.com

Bumper Stickers “What’s President 140 Done Now?” For other bumper stickers and novelties visit www.zazzle.com/lagooncorps Like Us On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ LagoonCorps/

Specialty dental practice across from USF looking to hire a part time business assistant!

This assistant will help us take and manage incoming calls after office hours.

Ideal position for pre dental students or students studying business administration/communications.

Flexible hours to accommodate your school schedule, especially if you take day classes!

Please call (813) 977-2928 or email your resume to mhuynh@implantperio.com

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LIFESTYLE ‘Walk in, crawl out’ UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Local pub crawl mixes business and pleasure

By Nicole Cate S T A F F

W R I T E R

The term ‘networking’ does not come to any person’s mind when someone else mentions a bar crawl. Instead, it conjures up visuals of groups of friends drunkenly running in and out of multiple pubs within close proximity of each other.

A trio of brothers originally from Germany is working on changing this perception, at least for residents of Tampa Bay. Markus, Thomas and Andreas Neuert moved to Florida in 1991 to attend high school, but after a year, the family decided to stay in the Sunshine State. Since then, they’ve lived in multiple cities around the world and worked in various industries, but two years ago, they decided to quit their jobs and develop an app.

They moved to Silicon Valley and began work on Kyngo, which is best described as a Snapchat-like platform for sharing pictures and videos that expire after a day. The difference is that Kyngo is for users to find and share information on local events, and has a maximum radius of 50 miles.

Last summer, when the app was finished and they were ready to launch it in a test market, they decided that Tampa would be the best city for this because of their Floridian connections and Andreas’ knowledge of the area from living there for several years.

“We made (the Downtown Crawlers) because we wanted to promote the app, and we wanted to promote businesses in downtown Tampa,” Andreas said. “We live down there, we work down there, we play down there. We talked to some bar

“

We live down there, we work down there, we play down there. We talked to some bar owners and we said, ‘Hey, why don’t we create a bar crawl?’

Andreas Neuert, co-creator of the Downtown Crawlers

owners and we said, ‘Hey, why don’t we create a bar crawl?’”

This was the beginning of the Downtown Crawlers, except at that point it was called the Fearsome 5 - Bar Pub Crawl.

Within 10 days, the first crawl was planned, and on August 27, about 40 people took part.

They didn’t expect the positive feedback they received.

This led them to plan at least one crawl a month, theme the crawls and to name themselves the Downtown Crawlers.

There wasn’t a crawl in September, but the three they did host over the course of the rest of 2016 were all food-themed.

In October, they celebrated the bacon pub crawl, November was dedicated to pumpkin spice, and in December, they drank to chocolate mint.

These themes allowed bartenders to have special drinks on the night of the event, such as Franklin Manor’s pumpkin spice martini in November.

Despite being around for less than a year, the crawl has already evolved. Because of its demographic of ages 21 to 50, some people have used it to professionally network in a more casual setting.

They are also considering introducing a USF-themed crawl that would include transportation to and from the university. They said if students are interested, they can suggest

”

it on the contact section of their website to speed up the process.

Thomas recalled that on February’s crawl, there were two University of Tampa students who were a semester away from graduating and discussing their future plans. One was a journalism student and another was a photographer. On the same crawl was the owner of a local Tampa magazine, and by the end of the crawl, all three parties had exchanged contact information and were talking about possible employment.

This gave the brothers the idea of making the events more accessible to students, including those at USF who are not as close to downtown as those at the University of Tampa.

In the next few months, they are planning on rolling out a student discount program.

Tickets for a Downtown Crawlers pub crawl run from $10 for an early bird ticket, to $45, depending on the crawl. This covers a T-shirt, a free drink or two, discounts on drinks, transportation to all locations and a raffle ticket to more prizes.

The student discount promises not only less expensive event tickets, but also a few more extra advantages and prizes for students. The Neuert brothers are still in the process of fine-tuning the details.

Sporting shirts with the catch phrase “Walk in, crawl out,” members of Downtown Crawlers take business to the streets in their Tampa pub crawl. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

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Lifestyle Editor Asst. News Editor Copy Editor Staff Writers For more information email oraclemeditor@gmail.com

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Sports

‘Challenge of the perception’ 14

Men’s Basketball

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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USF baseball’s streak falls one short of record

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New USF coach Brian Gregory is focused on better local recruiting to turn around men’s basketball

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

E D I T O R

Brian Gregory knows he’s entering a difficult situation as he takes over as head coach of USF men’s basketball.

The Bulls haven’t had a winning season since they won 22 games and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2012.

Coupled with its on-court problems, USF also faces potential sanctions from the NCAA from alleged academic fraud and could see more of its players transfer before the season begins.

“I think first and foremost, you have the challenge of the perception of the program,” Gregory said after his introductory press conference at the Sun Dome on Wednesday.

“We’ve been through a tough year. Whenever you do that, it’s a difficult situation for the players. So I’m spending time with them so they know they can trust me and know I’m here for them and I want to help them get over last season.”

With the 50-year old coach facing a difficult rebuilding process, he said one of the biggest factors in taking the job was the sense of commitment he received from the school.

USF signed Gregory to a sixyear contract that will pay him $6.58 million over the course of the deal. He will start out making $1 million next season, and his salary will escalate to $1.13 million in the final year of the contract.

“What I was looking for was an experienced head coach

Junior pitcher Peter Strzelecki held No. 12 FGCU to two runs over six innings in a 2-1 loss.

ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

Newly hired USF basketball coach Brian Gregory said one of his biggest obstacles will be overcoming how the program is currently viewed. ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ with high integrity, a champi- them to come watch any of his the current roster in tact.

Though the Bulls did not onship background, a program practices.

“We have an incred- have a senior on roster last builder and a coach who develops and graduates players,” ible recruiting base to recruit season, they’re looking at losathletic director Mark Harlan from,” he said. “Our footprint ing several key players from said. “Brian Gregory checks all of our university has been the 2016-17 team.

Leading scorer Geno Thorpe undervalued and underutilized those boxes.”

Gregory made it clear that in the recruiting process. That has chosen to simply graduate early rather than play his senior one of the program’s short- must, and will, change.

“It has to. There’s too many season. Following Thorpe’s comings that he’s focused on correcting is the lack of local recruits coming out of this announcement, sophomore area, and for us not to have a forward Luis Santos decided recruiting in recent years.

Junior forward Malik Martin presence, for us not to impact he would transfer from the was the only scholarship play- recruiting in the state of school.

Mere hours after Gregory er on roster last season who is Florida, we have to do a much was introduced on Wednesday, a native Floridian, and he was better job than that.”

But while Gregory faces the freshman forward Malik Fitts originally recruited to USC out tall task of changing the per- became the next Bull to make of high school.

Gregory said he’s already ception and recruiting of USF plans to leave town, as he reached out to local high men’s basketball, he’s also told the Tampa Bay Times he school coaches and welcomes simultaneously trying to keep

n See CHALLENGE on PAGE 15

E D I T O R

The USF baseball team fell one game shy of tying the longest winning streak in program history at 20 consecutive wins Wednesday night in Fort Myers, as the No. 21 Bulls fell 2-1 to No. 12 FGCU. Bulls coach Mark Kingston opted to save usual Sunday starter Peter Strzelecki for this mid-week contest, and the junior held the Eagles to two runs on six hits over six innings.

Sophomore Joe Genord tied the game at one with a twoout RBI single in the top of the sixth, but the Eagles promptly answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a solo homer from catcher Spencer Levine.

The Bulls put two runners on in the following two innings, but couldn’t capitalize. USF outhit FGCU 10 to 7 in the loss,

n See STREAK on PAGE 15

USF Pro Day 2017

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Former USF standouts Marlon Mack (left) and Rodney Adams (right) opted not to participate in most of the events at USF’s Pro Day, but did run routes in front of the dozens of NFL talent evaluators at the Frank Morsani Football Complex on Tuesday. ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

STREAK

Continued from PAGE 14

leaving eight runners on base.

USF (20-2) will look to begin a new winning streak when it hosts Florida A&M (14-7) for a three game series, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the USF Baseball Stadium.

Softball mercy ruled by No. 2 Florida USF softball fell behind early against the No. 2 Gators and couldn’t keep the game in reach, losing 8-0 in five innings Wednesday night in Gainesville.

Florida pitcher Aleshia Ocasio held the Bulls to two hits in the shutout, striking out four. While the Bulls struggled with hitting off Ocasio all evening, their pitching had trouble getting batters out.

Each of the four pitchers USF coach Ken Eriksen used allowed runs to score, with two failing to make it through one

CHALLENGE

inning of work.

USF (20-15) returns home Friday for a three game series Continued from PAGE 14 against Tulsa as the Bulls begin conference play at the USF is requesting his release from Softball Stadium. the school.

“I’ve had individual meetMalik Fitts announces ings with every player, and decision to transfer I’ve also had a total team meeting,” Gregory said.

Now the third player on ros- “We’ve completed one weight ter to announce he won’t be workout and we’ll do some returning next season, fresh- individual skill stuff. man forward Malik Fitts told “When it comes to the mesJoey Knight of the Tampa Bay sage I’m sending it’s, ‘OK, Times he has requested his you’ve just went through a release from the school. very difficult situation. First Fitts played 27 of the Bulls’ and foremost, I’m proud of 30 games, and he began to how they handled themselves, earn more time over the and their competitiveness course of the season, eventual- especially toward the end of ly cracking the starting lineup the year was impressive. In for 18 games. talking with the guys, my door In his 24 minutes per night is always open. We need to on the court, Fitts averaged spend some time together 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds. before decisions are made.

He joins former Bulls Geno Let’s get in the gym and work Thorpe and Luis Santos on the out, and see if South Florida is growing list of players who still the fit for you.’” have already played their last Despite the uphill battle facgame at the Sun Dome as a ing Gregory and whomever he Bull.

chooses to add to his coaching staff, the former coach of Dayton and Georgia Tech said his past experiences give him confidence.

“When I went down to Georgia Tech, I had never recruited a single player from the state of Georgia, and our first recruiting class had four players from Georgia, and I think it was a top-20 recruiting class,” Gregory said. “I’ve been schooled under the best when it comes to recruiting.”

When he took over as the coach of Georgia Tech in 2011, he inherited a team that had won just 13 games the year prior and had a history of just two winning seasons in the six years before his arrival.

He struggled to build the program for four seasons, but eventually broke through for a 21-win season in 2015-16, only to be fired at the conclusion of that season.

Gregory spent the following year as a consultant for Michigan State coach Tom

Izzo, who he said is one of his best friends. Izzo gave Gregory his start in coaching in 1999 when he hired him on as a graduate assistant.

Four years later, he was hired as the coach of Dayton, where he would lead the Flyers to two NCAA Tournament berths and an NIT Championship before heading off to coach the Yellow Jackets.

Entering his third headcoaching gig in 18 years of coaching basketball, Gregory said that while he understands rebuilding the program will take time, he’s not paying attention to what’s happened at USF in the past.

“To be honest, I’m not really interested in why things haven’t worked out in the past (at USF),” he said. “I know that if we do things according to our game plan, we are going to be successful. I think that while there have been glimpses of success, but maybe not sustainability, and that’s what I’m looking to do.”

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