Utah St. @ South Florida preview

South Florida has regained a bit of confidence with three straight victories as it prepares to face one of its toughest tests during the non-conference schedule Wednesday against Utah State at The Battleground 2K19 tripleheader in Houston. The Bulls knocked off Furman, Dartmouth and Drexel by a combined 49 points and takes on a Utah State team that was nationally ranked earlier in the season.

USF hauled in 17 offensive rebounds, forced 19 turnovers and received a season-high 23 points from junior guard David Collins - becoming the 20th Bull to reach 1,000 in a career - to roll past Drexel 81-61 on Sunday after being off eight days. “I’m proud of our guys,” USF coach Brian Gregory told reporters after the win. “You come off of finals and sometimes that first game after a bit of time, you might be a little sluggish. But I thought our guys came out and played with great energy and gave great effort today in a really quality win.” The Bulls will have to be at the top of their game against Utah State, which had a win over LSU among seven straight victories to start the season before dropping games against Saint Mary’s and BYU in the past five. The Aggies are led by senior guard Sam Merrill, who has 1,756 career points, and sophomore forward Justin Bean entered Tuesday fifth in the country in rebounds per contest (11.8).

TV: 7:45 p.m. ET, No TV

ABOUT UTAH STATE (10-2): Merrill averages team highs of 17.1 points and 3.9 assists while Bean scores 14.2 per game and boasts six double-doubles in his past seven games. The Aggies scored a season-low 64 in a four-point loss to BYU last time out as Merrill and Bean combined to go 5-for-19 from the floor, but junior forward Alphonso Anderson (12.3 points per game) and junior guard Abel Porter (6.9) went 11-for-18 to give Utah State a chance. Senior guard Diogo Brito averages 10.5 points along with a team-high two steals and sophomore guard Brock Miller (10.0 points) owns a team-most 26 makes from behind the arc.

ABOUT SOUTH FLORIDA (6-4): Collins leads the team in scoring (15.3) and has connected on 17-of-27 shots from the field - 5-of-9 from 3-point range - during the current winning streak. Laquincy Rideau is the only other Bull averaging in double figures scoring (13.2) and the senior guard tops the team in assists (3.7) while sitting 12th in the nation in steals per contest with 2.8 through Monday. Junior forward Justin Brown adds 8.8 points per game, draining a team-best 19 shots from behind the arc, and sophomore forward Michael Durr averages 4.6 points and a team-high 6.2 boards, but shoots just 35.6 percent from the field.

TIP-INS

1. The Bulls were 267th in field-goal percentage defense entering Tuesday (44.7), but are among the top 30 in turnovers forced (17.8).

2. Merrill needs 19 points to pass Kendall Youngblood (1,774) for seventh in program history and two assists to move by Tony Brown (396) for third.

3. USF senior F Antun Maricevic is averaging eight points on 7-of-7 from the field the past two games after scoring 15 combined in his first eight outings.

PREDICTION: Utah State 76, South Florida 68