Steady rains in Clearwater have washed out tonight's Big East tournament opening ceremonies, which were to include a home run derby and the presentation of the conference's postseason honors. The league's sluggers will have to save their power for the rest of the week, and we'll share the season awards as soon as they're announced around 7 p.m. tonight.

Stay tuned here this week for weather updates from what looks to be a wet couple of days at Bright House Field. Weather.com is calling for a 100 percent chance of rain on Tuesday, when four games are scheduled, and it's still 80 percent for Wednesday, when another four are scheduled. The rain chance is 50 percent or less the rest of the week, and the league has built in a rain day on Sunday before the NCAA Tournament field is announced Monday. If no games are played Tuesday, USF loses some of the advantage it had in holding ace Randy Fontanez from a scheduled start at Louisville on Thursday.

-- ESPN.com's Big East blogger, Brian Bennett, has posted his post-spring power rankings, and USF is in a three-way tie for fourth, ahead of just Syracuse and Louisville. Bennett, with good reason, cites the Bulls' offensive line as a big question mark. His top team is Cincinnati, despite the Bearcats losing 10 starters on defense ...

-- We told you last week that one recruiting service had USF's incoming women's basketball class as the seventh-best in the Big East. Another final set of rankings are in, considerably more favorable for the Bulls. Blue Star Basketball's updated rankings have USF at No. 20 nationally, with the fourth-best class in the Big East, one spot ahead of Notre Dame. West Virginia and Syracuse are also just behind at 23 and 25, with the best classes belonging to St. John's (13th), Georgetown (15th) and Louisville (16th).