Wichita St. @ South Florida preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 22, 2019 ) Wichita St. 41, South Florida 54

It was a week to forget for No. 22 Wichita State as it saw its eight-game true road winning streak and its 14-game home winning streak both come to an abrupt end. The Shockers will look to get back in the win column and end a two-game slide when they visit South Florida on Tuesday.

The rough week for the Shockers began with a 65-53 setback at Temple on Wednesday (their lowest scoring output of the season) and was followed up with a 65-54 loss at home Saturday against No. 24 Houston – their first back-to-back losses since a three-game slide last January. “(The Cougars) were smarter and they were better coached. They just beat us in every way,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall told reporters. “Disappointed, obviously, in where we are the last two games and you know we’re going to have to try to figure it out. We just need to worry about being a good basketball team.” USF is showing a lot of fight during its American Athletic Conference schedule, but it is not resulting in wins as the Bulls lost their third game in a row by less than five points Saturday with a 55-54 setback to Central Florida. “Wichita State is coming off two tough losses, but they are still a top 25 team,” Bulls coach Brian Gregory told the media. “They are still very, very talented and are really deep. We’ve got to do a great job defensively on them because they can score inside and outside.”

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: ESPNews

ABOUT WICHITA STATE (15-3, 3-2 AAC): Sophomore guard Jamarius Burton had complied seven straight double-figure scoring efforts entering Saturday but managed nine points on 2-of-9 shooting against the Cougars. Freshman Tyson Etienne was the only Shockers player to hit double-digits with his 10-point performance, but the guard also saw his Wichita State rookie record of consecutive games with a steal end at 12. The Shockers managed to outrebound their opponents in 12 of 13 non-conference games but after a 39-35 disparity on the glass Saturday, they have lost the rebounding battle in all five of their AAC contests.

ABOUT SOUTH FLORIDA (8-10, 1-4): The Bulls are 15-4 since the start of last season when junior Justin Brown tallies at least 10 points, but the Atlanta native scored nine points against UCF and hasn’t reached double-digits in eight straight games. Sophomore Michael Durr hit 5-of-6 from the floor on his way to a team-high 11 points Saturday while leading scorer David Collins (14.7 points per game) finished with eight points on 3-of-14 shooting. The Bulls are carried by their strong defensive play that sees them leading the conference in forced turnovers (17.1) and total steals (31), as well as owning the top scoring defense (62.3).

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Wichita State has the most free throws made (290) and attempted (421) in the conference but owns the eighth-best success rate (68.9).

2. Bulls G Laquincy Rideau leads the conference with 2.56 steals per game – eighth nationally.

3. The all-time series is tied at one win apiece as the only meetings between the programs have been in the last two seasons with each team winning on its home court.

PREDICTION: Wichita State 67, USF 63