USF Bulls head into AAC tournament as No. 1 seed

USF opens ACC Championship against ECU

The USF men’s basketball team are heading back on court to open up the ACC Championship quarter finals. Kellie Cowan reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - The USF Bulls Men’s Basketball team hopes to grab the AAC tournament by the horns.

Three more wins and they’re in. That’s the mentality for the USF Men’s Basketball team this weekend as they look to claim the AAC championship and secure their entry into the NCAA tournament.

It all starts Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. against No. 8 seed East Carolina.

The Pirates, coincidentally, bounced the Bulls from the AAC tournament in the first-round last year. But a very different USF squad will take the court in Fort Worth this afternoon.

RELATED: USF Bulls crack AP Top 25 in men's basketball for first time in program history

The Bulls dominated the AAC this season by going 16-2 in conference play and taking the regular season crown for the first time in program history.

They earned back-to-back Top-25 rankings thanks to a 15-game winning streak. Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim was the unanimous pick for AAC Coach of the Year, three Bulls made all-conference teams, and Chris Youngblood was named Co-Player of the Year for their conference.

Yet, despite their unpredicted and unprecedented success, the Bulls are not locks for the NCAA tournament.

At 23-6, the Bulls’ losses are enough for selection committee members to pass on USF in favor of teams in bigger conferences with tougher schedules.

As NCAA insider Andy Katz put it in his final March Madness bracketology breakdown before Sunday’s selection show: "Their resume is not an at-large resume, so South Florida is going to have to win their conference tournament."

Those words have become fuel to fire up the Bulls ahead of the AAC tournament.

"We'll let the chips fall where they may, but this team has shown resolve and perseverance all year. They've shown consistency and toughness all year. So even if they don't want to recognize us, you know, as a whole, we still have control of the things that we can control. And that's what we're going to focus on," said Abdur-Rahim.

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