Rolling of the Bulls: USF pulls off rare February four-sport sweep

For one day, beleaguered USF sports fans can rightfully disregard the decrepit sports adage that warns against resting on laurels.

The laurels spawned by Wednesday night’s developments in three different cities warrant celebrating — even savoring — for at least a day or two.

For the first time in more than a decade, both Bulls basketball teams, as well as the baseball and softball teams, triumphed on the same night. While the women’s basketball team was rolling to a 93-83 home victory against Tulsa on senior night, the men were completing their first season sweep of UCF in 30 years with a chippy 82-75 triumph in Orlando.

Meantime, the softball team snapped a five-game skid with a home doubleheader sweep of Florida Gulf Coast. And arguably upstaging them all was the baseball team, which rallied for seven runs in the top of the ninth for a 10-9 triumph at No. 7 Florida.

The surreal sequence was the first time all four of those teams had won on the same day since Feb. 26, 2011. On that afternoon (and evening), the men’s basketball team won by 10 at DePaul, the women won 59-58 at Villanova (on Andrea Smith’s baseline game-winner with six seconds to play), and the baseball and softball teams earned 3-2 home wins against Elon and Illinois State, respectively.

But in terms of historical significance, Wednesday’s collection of wins might have topped the 2011 sweep.

• The baseball team’s win was its first regular-season triumph in Gainesville since May 9, 2017, and its second against a top-25 opponent this year. It topped No. 13 Maryland, 8-7, on opening night last Friday.

• The men’s basketball team’s win at UCF was its first against the Knights in Orlando since a 79-78 overtime triumph on Feb. 5, 2014.

• The women’s hoops team (25-5, 14-1 American Athletic Conference) reached 25 wins for only the third time in program history.

• The softball team’s sweep snapped the program’s longest losing streak (five games) in three years.

Fittingly, athletic director Michael Kelly may have encapsulated the four-team sweep in four words.

“Oh, What A Night!” he tweeted

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls

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