South Florida @ Southern Methodist preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 4, 2018 ) Southern Methodist 54, South Florida 65

Home really has been the place to be for SMU and the Mustangs return to their homecourt, where they are 9-4, following a two-game skid, both on the road, to face South Florida on Thursday night. The Bulls have won three in a row after defeating Memphis 84-78 on Saturday and they are looking to put together their first four-game winning streak in conference play since the 2011-12 season, when they were members of the Big East.

"With a good win on Saturday, you turn around and now you're playing on the road at a place us, as a program, hasn't had a lot of success,” USF head coach Brian Gregory told reporters. “It's a great challenge to be able to respond and go on the road. We won our last road game and our guys are starting to get the better feel for how well you need to play on the road. Our league is obviously an example of it, but you look around the country and if you don't play well on the road, you have no chance to win.” The Bulls will have their work cut out as they are just 1-6 against SMU at Moody Coliseum and 1-5 in the last six encounters with the Mustangs overall, although USF's one victory came in Tampa in the last meeting (65-54). Still, these Mustangs may not be as dominant at home as past SMU squads, as four of the team’s 12 home losses (72-12) since the start of the 2014-15 campaign were put on the board this season. The Mustangs did go down to the wire in their two road losses last week, dropping a nail-biter to Wichita State 85-83 on a last-second Shockers layup followed by another missed opportunity in a 73-68 loss to Cincinnati Wednesday that came down to an errant game-tying 3-point shot by senior guard and USF transfer Jahmal McMurray with 4.3 seconds left.

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT USF (15-6, 5-4 AAC): Sophomore guard Justin Brown has made his presence felt from downtown over the last two games, nailing 69.2 percent of his long-distance shots (9-for-13), including a career-high five 3-pointers against Memphis, and he leads the Bulls with 38 treys for the year. Fellow sophomore David Collins, who had 21 points in the last meeting with SMU, remains the team’s scoring leader (14.6 ppg) and he ranks 24th in the NCAA with 2.3 steals per game, while Alexis Yetna became the top freshman rebounder in school history (206) on Saturday after pulling down four in the win over Memphis. Led by Collins, USF is ninth in the nation and first in the conference with 9.2 steals per game and the Bulls have nine games this season with at least 10 steals.

ABOUT SMU (12-9, 4-5): Leading the way for the Mustangs is McMurray, who had 21 points in the loss to Cincinnati for his seventh 20-point game and he ranks third in the AAC with 18.5 points per game thanks to hitting a team-high 73 3-pointers, 24 shy of the SMU single-season record. Forward Ethan Chargois produced a career-high-tying 12 rebounds in the loss to Wichita State and he tops the team with 7.0 rebounds per game, while Feron Hunt came on strong in his first career start last time out against Cincinnati with 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds. The Mustangs are dominating the offensive glass, averaging 13.1 offensive rebounds per game (second in the conference) and they are 9-4 when they have outrebounded opponents.

TIP-INS

1. SMU owns a 9-4 lead over USF thanks to wins in six of the last seven meetings.

2. Four of USF’s six losses this season have been by three points or less.

3. McMurray transferred from USF to SMU after spending his freshman season (2015-16) and the first four games of his sophomore season (2016-17) as a Bull.

PREDICTION: USF 77, SMU 65