USF set to test No. 21 Houston in AAC action

No. 21 Houston, back atop the American Athletic Conference standings, will be the road again when it takes on South Florida on Saturday in Tampa.

The Cougars (17-1, 4-1 AAC) moved into a tie for the conference lead with Cincinnati and Temple Wednesday night when their 69-58 victory at SMU was followed by UCF's first conference loss, a 75-67 setback at Wichita State.

Houston's game against the Bulls (12-5, 2-3 AAC) is the second of three road outings over a four-game stretch.

SMU offered little in the way of resistance as the Cougars led all the way, jumping out to a 12-4 lead. The usual suspects led Houston with leading scorer guard Corey Davis and junior guard Armoni Brooks scoring 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Davis is averaging 15.7 points per game. Brooks is scoring at a 14.5 clip and leads the conference in 3-pointers with 64 in 165 attempts. The Cougars also have the league's No. 2 assist man, guard Galen Robinson Jr., who needs one more assist for 500 for his career and his fourth consecutive season with at least 100.

He is typical of the kind of grind-it-out player who has put Houston well within reach of a third-consecutive 20-win season. Robinson dished out 11 assists in a 79-70 win over Wichita State last weekend.

"I'd much rather have a kid that hates to lose than one who wants to win," coach Kelvin Sampson said. "Everybody wants to win, OK? Usually kids who want to win, they like how winning sounds. But I'd much rather have that hates to lose. Galen hates to lose."

USF has lost its past two games -- to Temple and Cincinnati, both on the road -- but still is on its way to its first winning season since the 2011-12 Bulls finished 22-14. Their dozen wins already match their highest season total since then.

The Bulls also have a seven-game winning streak at home.

"We've always been good defensively, but our defense didn't create offense," coach Brian Gregory said recently in the Tampa Times. "Now our defense is starting to create some offense."

Gregory, the former Dayton and Georgia Tech coach, is in his second season USF.

Led by junior guard Laquincy Rideau, a transfer from Gardner-Webb, the Bulls have three players averaging in double figures.

Rideau is scoring at 14.6 points per game, just ahead of guard David Collins' 14.3-point average. Redshirt freshman forward Alexis Yetna is averaging a double-double (12.8 points, 10.4 rebounds) and shooting 44 percent (11 of 25) on 3-pointers.

Guard Justin Brown is the third-most accurate 3-point shooter in the AAC (40.6 percent on 28-of-69 shooting).

After traveling to Tampa, Houston is home against East Carolina on Wednesday before going to Tulsa for a Sunday afternoon affair on Jan. 27. USF is home against Wichita State this Tuesday.

--Field Level Media