The shots won’t fall and the dream won’t last for USF in NCAA tourney

For the better part of four months, outside shooting defined the USF basketball team. Outside shooting drove the Bulls, it carried them, it legitimized them.And on Thursday, it killed them.No. 11 seed USF lost 83-79 to sixth-seeded Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Buffalo, New York, thanks mostly to missing 17 consecutive 3-point shots at one point.Once they cut down on the 3-point attempts, the Bulls were able to match Louisville point-for-point for long stretches but could not dig themselves out of a 23-point deficit.USF finished with one of its lowest percentages of the season (15.1%) on 3-point shots. Joseph Pinion was 5-of-14 from long range but his teammates were 0-for-19.“Obviously, a tough day not to make shots,” USF coach Bryan Hodgson said. “I know the critics will say we took too many 3s. I think we missed some really good ones. Did we take some bad ones? Sure. But we’ve had our identity offensively all year.”The defeat ends one of the most impressive seasons in program history. The Bulls remade the roster and bounced back from a 13-17 season to win both the regular-season and tournament championships in the American Conference.Pinion led the Bulls with 27, points and Izaiyah Nelson had 22 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.It would have been easy to continue firing 3-pointers as the Bulls fell behind, but instead they used increased defensive pressure to get points in transition.“There have been games where we were down 20 or down 15. We don’t have any quit in us,” Nelson said. “All 14 guys, we never back down from anything.”The Bulls had several chances to cut Louisville’s lead to three or two points in the final minutes, but never hit the big shot.“We battled back really hard and, on that run, the whole crowd was behind us,” Pinion said. “I definitely thought we were going to win, but we came up short.” • • • Sign up for our Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.Every weekday, tune into our Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast to hear reporter Rick Stroud break down the biggest stories in Tampa Bay sports.Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. Follow our coverage on X and Facebook .

The shots won’t fall and the dream won’t last for USF in NCAA tourney

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