USF TRIES TO NAIL DOWN FIRST ROUND BYE WITH A WIN
USF WINS LEADS WCC IN 3 PT. PERCENTAGE, 2 ND IN FG%
TUCKER (1,720 PTS) ONLY TRAILS DAILEY AND CARTWRIGHT

Fri., Feb. 28 *at Loyola Marymount Los Angeles, CA 7:00 PM
Sat., Mar. 1 *at Pepperdine Malibu, CA 7:00 PM

SAN FRANCISCO - The USF Dons (12-13, 7-5 WCC) look to continue their strong finish when they close out the regular season with games at Loyola Marymount Friday and Pepperdine Saturday (both 7 PM, KYCY 1550 AM). USF split its games last week, leaving USF alone in third place with a 7-5 mark with two games to go. USF has a one-game lead over Pepperdine (6-6) and a two-game lead over St. Mary's (5-7). The Dons swept the two Los Angeles schools led by Darrell Tucker and John Cox on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Those were the two first games for Tucker since suffering a thumb injury and responded by winning player of the week when USF beat Pepperdine 87-77 and LMU 91-73.

WCC HAS HIGHEST RPI EVER: The West Coast Conference is currently ranked #10 in the College Basketball News RPI rating. It is the conference's highest ever ranking. We finished 15 in last year's NCAA RPI. Here are current the top 15. 1 Southeastern (12), 2 Big 12 (12), 3 Atlantic Coast(9), 4 Big Ten (11), 5 Big East (14), 6 Mountain West(8), 7 Pacific 10 (10), 8 ConferenceUSA(14), 9 Atlantic 10 (12), 10 West Coast (8), 11 Western Athl.(10), 12 Missouri Val.(10), 13 Mid-American (13), 14 Horizon (9), 15 Sun Belt (11)

SEEDING SCENARIO: USF will definitely be seeded somewhere between the three and six slots. The Dons would avoid a first-round WCC game by finishing in the top four. The only way that USF would have to play that first round game would be for St. Mary's to sweep both games and USF to lose both. That would leave the Dons in a three-way tie for third at 7-7. In that scenario, Pepperdine would win a tiebreaker over USF because of their win over San Diego, while St. Mary's would go above USF due to the fact they swept Pepperdine.

TOREROS SHUT DOWN DONS: San Diego stopped USF's home winning streak by outscoring the Dons 50-33 after intermission in a 81-63 victory. It was the first time since the December 14th game at Pacific that USF has not been in contention to win a game at the end. The Toreros won the game by making 17 of 28 shots after halftime, while the Dons made just 14 of 37. San Diego also was able to capitalize on a great deal many more trips to the free-throw line, nailing 19 of 28 to 5 of 7 for USF. Jason Blair scored 26 for USD with Roy Morris adding 20, while USF was paced by Darrell Tucker's 19 points and 11 by John Cox.

DONS COAST BY BRONCOS: USF broke out to an early 21-10 lead, went into the dressing room ahead 40-20 and coasted to an easy 78-65 win over Santa Clara last night at Memorial Gymnasium. The Dons stretched their lead to 28 points before Mathews starting substituting liberally. Junior guard John Cox led the way for the Dons, nailing 11-15 shots from the floor, as USF made 50.8% of its shots from the floor. Darrell Tucker had 12 points in his first USF start since January 2 nd . Alvin Broussard added 4 points and 10 rebounds.