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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I DA
Conflicts over SDS accomodations reveal struggles with invisible disabilities
By Chaveli Guzman M U L T I M E D I A
E D I T O R
After her dual enrollment classes let out at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays in summer 2016, Nicole Yacura would sit inside the Boca Raton Tri-Rail Station waiting for her 9 p.m. train to arrive. As she leaned her head back on the wired wall that encased the bridge, a war took place inside her mind. One she had struggled with since she was six years old – her battle with depression and anxiety. When she came to USF, her lifelong struggle worsened. In fall 2016, Yacura began her collegiate journey at USF as an environmental science and policy major. While she dreaded being away from home, she was eager to begin the new chapter in her life. Because of the limitations of having anxiety and depression, Yacura immediately registered for class and testing accommodations with Students with Disabilities Services (SDS). With these accommodations, Yacura would be given extra time on exams and would take them in a distraction-free room. Initially, she never felt her accommodations or her conditions
Nicole Yacura struggles with invisible disabilities of which were worsened by an experience with a USF professor. ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN were a problem. For three semesters, her anxiety subsided some — she felt welcome. However, in fall 2017, Richard Pollenz, a professor who has taught for 30 years, changed that feeling entirely. She said when she mentioned the need to implement her requested accommodations in the course to
Pollenz, her accommodations were viewed as an inconvenience to the course material and syllabus. She said not only did her professor have a problem with the accommodations, Pollenz advised her to abandon them in the course. For the first time at USF, she said she felt as though her disabilities posed
an obstacle between herself and her success. “Having somebody essentially call me out and question my accommodations, question the things I have in my life to make it a little bit normal made me feel abnormal, made me feel like a nuisance,” Yacura said. “It brought
all that anxiety back.” Pollenz denies these accusations, mentioning that he even went out of his way to accommodate Yacura and other students. “I met with ALL of the students who had SDS accommodation before the start of the semester and explained the four different assessments,” Pollenz said in an e-mail to The Oracle. “We all agreed that each student would take their exams in the SDS office and each would personally determine where they would complete the quizzes and homeworks attempt. “We also all agreed that they would take the in class assessments during the class and we would determine if there were any issues moving forward. I also indicated that the grading of in class assignments for SDS students would be based ON THE WORK COMPLETED and that anyone did not finish the work they could always come back after class to complete or review during office hours. This was also communicated to the SDS office. It was stated that if a student had an issue, they would come and see me and would discuss the situation. NO STUDENTS CAME TO SEE ME.”
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Adjuncts to officially unionize after overwhelming vote in favor By Maria Ranoni N E W S
E D I T O R S
Adjunct professors can retire their protest signs for now as their fight for the right to unionize is over. In an overwhelming victory, USF adjuncts voted in favor of unionization last week. After a significant push from adjuncts advocating for the right to unionize, the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission issued an Order and Direction of Election on Jan. 9.
This election lasted from Feb. 16 to March 13 and was conducted using mail ballots. The organization that will represent adjuncts is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). According to their website, SEIU is “an organization of 2 million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more
just and humane society.” Out of the 900 adjuncts that were eligible to vote, 326 voted to unionize while only 91 voted against it. Overall, there was a rather low voter turnout with about 46 percent deciding to vote. Dana Corrigan, an animation adjunct instructor, was confident her colleagues would vote in favor of unionization. “I had a feeling that we would win because it’s been such an issue for adjuncts — our general living
and working situations — and also trying to find full-time work at colleges because it’s not like most of us are not trying,” Corrigan said. Adam Freeman, a university spokesman, said USF doesn’t agree with the decision made by adjuncts. “Throughout the election process, we provided adjunct faculty members with information about the realities of unionization to ensure that each voter could make an informed decision,”
Freeman said. “We also explained that the university does not believe unionization best serves the needs of students, adjuncts or the university as a whole. We are disappointed by these results, as well as the low voter response.” However, the battle is not yet over. SEIU must still negotiate with USF administration to come up with a contract for adjuncts that will hopefully appease both parties.
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The Oracle THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1966
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SDS
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Only about 46 percent of adjuncts chose to vote on whether to unionize with SEIU or not. ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN
VOTE
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“I’m realistic, we’ll have to compromise and that’s OK,” Corrigan said. “Although the campaign USF threw to try to stop the union seemed pretty rough, but I also don’t know for sure how that went at other schools. I don’t know if that was more aggressive than the other schools have been. I think negotiations will go well though.” Jarad Fennell, an English literature adjunct professor, said if negotiations don’t go as well as he and other adjuncts expect they will, he may have to change professions. “I can’t really imagine remaining an adjunct for any significant period of time without something changing,” Fennell said. “I don’t think anyone intended that being an adjunct would be a lifelong career. And many of my fellow grad students have moved onto other things. I’m hoping it will work out, and I can truly spend my time on USF, and maybe reduce the number of classes I’m teaching.”
According to Corrigan, what adjunct experience is a more systematic problem that holds them back from progress. “I think USF is having a lot of the same problems that other schools are having which is employing more adjuncts and not having a lot of full-time faculty positions,” Corrigan said. “It’s becoming more of a business rather than a school. I think they’re regarding too much as a business and that forced us to unionize. If conditions were better, then it wouldn’t have been necessary. We don’t have to consider them as a business and negotiate with them like a business.” USF adjuncts are the third adjunct group in the area to hold union elections in the past two years. The other groups, Hillsborough Community College and Broward College, both voted in favor of unionization. “I love USF,” Fennell said. “I love working here; I love the students; I love the campus. I’m hoping that we’ll sit down and come up with something that will help everyone moving forward.”
Despite her challenges in the course, Yacura never felt comfortable enough to meet one-on-one. “The only way I could get help to help my grade was by seeing him during office hours,” Yacura said. “If I’m scared to be in a classroom of 300 students with him, why would I go to office hours?” Believing the accommodations she relied on to help her succeed academically were not being met, Yacura said she felt elevated anxiety every time she walked into the auditorium-sized classroom. “Every single class, I was fearful,” Yacura said. “My anxiety was through the roof every single time I walked into the building. I felt nauseous. It wouldn’t go away until I walked out the door.” According to Yacura, she was denied one of the SDS accommodations which states she should only have her pop quizzes be solely graded on the questions that were completed in the short period of time allotted. Her anxiety was so bad before one of the pop quizzes that she was biting her nails to the point that her fingers started to bleed, leaving her pop quiz uncompleted and stained with drops of blood. Before handing in her quiz, she wrote on the top “Dude, I’m bleeding” and still received a 25 percent. During each of her classes, she would be uncertain of what was going to occur. According to Yacura, Pollenz made her feel uncomfortable through antagonizing her and singling her out. In one instance, while collecting over 200 pop quizzes, Pollenz approached her aisle with the stack of quizzes. When her professor arrived at her desk, the quizzes were slammed down in front of her following a question asked with what Yacura described as a menacing tone, “Was that too quiet or too loud for you?” Throughout the semester, Yacura said she felt as though she had no opportunity to succeed and also felt that no matter how hard she tried,
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she would never be able to overcome the hurdles that her professor set. “My depression made me feel like a completely worthless human because it was just one professor standing in the way of me and my dream,” Yacura said. “That just made me feel so low. When you feel like there is nothing that you can do. When there is just one person standing in your way, it is so incredibly damaging to your selfesteem, to your ambitions, hopes and dreams. It ruined the whole semester for me.” On Dec. 20, she shared a detailed account of her experience on Facebook with friends and family. She urged the university to take a stronger stance toward helping faculty and students better understand the limitations of undergoing mental illness so no one else would have to go through what she did. However, little did she know other students had undergone similar experiences with other professors at USF. Larissa Parodi, a senior majoring in health sciences, said she had similar experiences with Pollenz. However, she has faced challenges in the psychology department as well. Parodi said professors view mental illness as an excuse to not accept academic responsibilities or as a lack of motivation. “Sometimes, the university, or a lot of professors will think we are all the same, but we are not, and we don’t all have the same stories,” Parodi said. “Some of us are trying to heal from past traumas. If it’s not that, it’s biological, and we can’t change that.” Daley Drucker, a sophomore majoring in English, said she dealt with a different professor who made her disability feel like a burden on the course as well. Drucker mentioned how ostracized she felt in comparison to other students who didn’t endure the illness she faced. “As people with disabilities, we already have to give extra time, strength and energy to apply ourselves to keep up with our peers,” Drucker said. “Having
3 professors that complicate our accommodations process can be incredibly discouraging. There were many times that I wondered if my professors even wanted a student like me in the sciences — I was an environmental microbiology major at the time.” Director of SDS, Deborah McCarthy, handles accommodations like these. “It (professors not complying with SDS accommodations) happens rarely,” McCarthy said. “If there are issues, the student can approach SDS, and we will solve the problem as soon as possible.” If a formal complaint were to be reported, it would be included in any staff or faculty personnel file. In a records request of Pollenz personnel file by The Oracle, no such complaints were found. Due to the nature of Pollenz’s course work, he said that often times students have a harder time being successful. “Often it is also perceived that my sections are “tougher” than others who do not require homework and always give multiple choice exams,” Pollenz said. “Since I am well versed in working with students with ADA (American with Disabilities Act) accommodations, I initiated numerous personal conversations with several staff in SDS about the proposed pedagogy I was planning to use and about all of the students who required accommodations this semester.” “However, many of these conversations were on the phone or in person at the SDS office and not recorded or documented, but used to gather information and ideas. I was always asking about options and solutions (before any of these allegations even came to light).” After Yacura shared her story on Facebook three months ago, an influx of students have come forward with similar stories. “The reason I’m coming forward is because I don’t know if a lot of students could have done that,” Yacura said. “I’m coming forward because I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”
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on the Bulls and threatened to end their 7-game win streak on Sunday, leading USF 4-3 in the top of the seventh. In the bottom half of the inning, however, Chris Chatfield scored on a fielding error after Joe Genord hit a ground ball between the Black Knights’ first baseman’s legs. The score would stay tied at four until the bottom of the ninth when Garrett Zech hit a single to left field, scoring JD Dutka and securing USF a series sweep — it’s second of the season. “That was huge,” Mohl said. “Second and third with a guy with a good breaking ball on the mound. He elevated one and Zech drove it into left field.” The win-streak comes at a good time for USF, as it’s begin AAC conference play on Friday at home against Connecticut, which the
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Bulls lost two-of-three games to last season. “We’re in a good spot right now, guys are playing with a lot of confidence, feeling good about themselves,” Mohl said. “The real season starts next Friday. It’ll be a good matchup with Shane (McClanahan) and Tim (Cate) going against each other — two future first rounder’s. We’re looking forward to the challenge.” USF was in first place of the AAC for a majority of last season, but faltered down the stretch, dropping four of its last six conference games. In the AAC Tournament, as the No. 4 seed, it won its first game, but lost its next two, eliminating it. Before the conference season begins Friday, USF has a nonconference game in Jacksonville against UNF (10-12), which the Bulls lost to 4-2 in their last game before the 8-game win streak. First pitch will be at 6:05 p.m.
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game, how do you explain this performance the very next time out? It’s not just the score that was uncharacteristic of the Bulls. USF committed 21 personal fouls Saturday. Coming into the game, the Bulls averaged 13 personal fouls per game. Some calls were definitely questionable, but when you’re getting thoroughly dominated like USF was throughout the majority of the game, do you really expect to get the benefit of a borderline call? Do you even really deserve it? USF was uncharacteristically bad on the boards too. The Bulls collected 19 rebounds – well below their season average of just under 30. This led to Buffalo being able to score 18 second chance points. The Bulls were never particularly careful with the basketball this season – USF
averaged over 12 turnovers a game. Even with that in mind, Saturday’s game was below average for USF – the Bulls coughed it up 16 times which led to 25 points off turnovers for Buffalo. What happened? After feeling snubbed over the lower seeding – and USF was right to feel that way as it had the resume of at least a No. 5 seed – how do you come out that flat? For a team that had every reason in the world to play with a chip on its shoulder, how do you wind up playing with what appeared to be an anchor on your leg? It’s the second straight year USF was run in the first round of the tournament, but it’s easier to live with a loss like last year’s. USF mounted an impressive comeback against Mizzou only to lose on a buzzer-beater. But at least that game was competitive and offered a dramatic ending. What positive can you take
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away from this? The goal this season was making the program’s first Sweet Sixteen appearance. Considering USF would have had to face a very good FSU team in the second round, it might have been tough, but it was doable. But the Bulls didn’t even get a chance to face the Seminoles. They barely faced Buffalo. For a team with the winningest senior class in program history, for a team that set a new program high for regular season wins, for a team that wanted to “unleash chaos” in the tournament – they failed. Wins against Ohio State and LSU in the regular season don’t mean a whole lot if you can’t show up in the NCAA Tournament’s first round. It’s a shame it had to end like this. Seniors Maria Jespersen and Laia Flores deserved a better ending than this. Everyone deserved better. It’s going to be a long offseason.
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OPINION
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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Barbie fails to show inclusive beauty with new “Inspirational Women” line By Paige Wisniewski S T A F F
T H E O R AC L E
Stormy skies loom over the White House By Samantha Moffett
W R I T E R
Women’s History Month has given a promotional platform for businesses to both honor female historical figures and support women in their customer base. Mattel – the maker of Barbie – has joined this public respect of feminist figures by unveiling an “Inspiring Women” collection of Barbies. The “Inspiring Women” series, released on March 8th, International Women’s Day, features 17 prominent female figures of past and present including Amelia Earhart, Bindi Irwin and Ashley Graham. However, Mattel’s sanitation of one particular Barbie, Frida Kahlo, invalidates this historical figure’s ideologies and negates the “feminist” position Mattel is attempting to emulate. This depiction of beauty is hardly celebratory of women. Instead, it contributes to an overall sexist attitude of beauty. Kahlo was a disabled Mexican artist and activist. She followed the communist ideology and is widely celebrated by feminists for her work and politics. It makes sense that Mattel would use Kahlo as part of an “Inspiring Women” collection, but their depiction of Kahlo contradicts the artist’s ideologies and self-expression. The Kahlo Barbie features light-colored eyes, an ablebody and excludes her unibrow. As a Mexican, communist and feminist icon, it is unlikely Kahlo would appreciate her likeness being attributed to a white-washed toy sold for $29.99. Mattel’s updated image of Kahlo proves that their agenda is less about promoting feminism or honoring historical women and more about keeping their brand
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The Frida Kahlo Barbie is not an accurate representation of who she was and contradicts the message of the series. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE afloat in a culture of progression. Lightening Kahlo’s eyes, removing her unibrow and excluding her wheelchair contributes to a sexist ideal of womanhood and beauty. In a statement regarding the “Inspiring Women” series, senior vice president and general manager of Barbie, Lisa McKnight said, “Girls have always been able to play out different roles and careers with Barbie and we are thrilled to shine a light on real-life role models to remind them that they can be anything.” The “real-life” they are attempting to depict does not apply to this version of Kahlo. Real life, to Kahlo and to many other girls and women, includes being disabled, having dark features and having hair in commonly groomed areas. This sanitized representation of Kahlo sends the message that girls “can be anything,” as long as their appearance aligns with societal conceptions of beauty.
This series does not break any barriers nor celebrates women as Mattel intended. By using depictions of past and present prominent female figures, Mattel is thinly veiling their problematic depictions of women under a false guise of feminism. In reality, the brand is promoting a onedimensional archetype of beauty. If Mattel was truly interested in honoring “Inspiring Women,” they would provide accurate portrayals of these historical figures. Mattel should incorporate Kahlo’s unibrow, keep her dark eyes and include her wheelchair. The girls who might play with this doll could share these qualities. It would be more groundbreaking to send the message to these girls that what is natural to them – such as where their body hair may grow, their disability or their dark features – is normal, beautiful and not in need of revision. Paige Wisniewski is a junior majoring in interdisciplinary sciences.
E D I T O R
In the past two years, we have learned many things about our 45th president. However, recent allegations against President Donald Trump regarding an affair with adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, otherwise known as Stormy Daniels, raise the question of the Trump campaign’s integrity during the 2016 election. Those who have worked to silence the allegations made by Daniels, like Trump’s own personal lawyer Michael Cohen, are playing against campaign finance laws and the democratic process that we need for fair elections. The alleged affair, which has been repeatedly denied by Trump, is reported to have happened in 2006, which ultimately does not have anything to do with the 2016 election. The allegations should be a private discussion between Trump and the First Lady, as they were said to have taken place shortly after she gave birth to their son, Barron. However, what should be of concern to American citizens is in regard to the behavior the Trump team showed behind closed doors during the election. In October 2016, in the heat of elections, Cohen reportedly paid Daniels $130,000 of hush money to ensure the public did not hear a peep about any affair. Cohen denies that any of the money came from the Trump administration, but rather from his own funds. However, if this money was used to of
influence the public view of then Republican candidate Trump, this money had to be reported to the Federal Election Commission, none of which was reported. As members of a democracy, we should be asking ourselves this: Is it OK for a presidential candidate to privately pay someone off to conceal information from voters? Those who are brushing this issue aside and simply excusing it as none of our business should consider that perhaps they were even further deceived during the already controversial election. Are there other payoffs we don’t know about? If Trump had not secretly paid off Daniels, would it have changed the outcome of who our president is today? This is an issue that involves the American people. While what the president did or did not do in 2006 behind his wife’s back is not currently our problem, what him and his campaign team may have done during the 2016 election is most definitely of our concern. It is in violation of public policy for any public official to use legal contracts to silence information that is possibly detrimental to their chance of being in office. The courts will determine if the hush money paid by Cohen is constitutional or not. However, those who are brushing this aside need to understand what this all could mean. Daniels needs to be heard. Samantha Moffett is a sophomore majoring in mass communications.
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Sports
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Women’s Basketball
Bulls ousted from NCAA Tournament by No. 11 Buffalo 102-79
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USF pitching dominates as Bulls complete sweep
Baseball
By Josh Fiallo S P O R T S
The first-round exit was USF’s second in as many years. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN wins over LSU and Ohio State – who committed 21 fouls, which led to By Brian Hattab entered the tournament ranked 29th Buffalo going 22-24 from the free C O R R E S P O N D E N T and 6th in RPI respectively. throw line. USF (26-8, 13-3) found itself in The game started out well for the Buffalo was led offensively by an unfamiliar position at the end higher seeded Bulls. USF finished junior guard Cierra Dillard, who of Saturday’s opening round game the first quarter with a 20-11 lead led all scorers with 36 points. Junior of the NCAA Tournament at the and held Buffalo to only 33 percent forward Courtney Wilkins scored Tucker Center in Tallahassee – on shooting from the field. Senior 23 of the 25 points off the bench the wrong side of a route to a team forward Maria Jespersen led the way for Buffalo, including going 5-8 from not named UConn. with 13 points and eight rebounds beyond the three-point line. The sixth-seeded Bulls were over the game’s first 10 minutes. Junior guard Kitija Laksa led all eliminated from the tournament in Then, it all went wrong for the USF scorers with 28 points. Jespersen the first round for the second straight Bulls in green and gold. would finish with her AAC-leading year, falling to the 11th-seeded Buffalo ended the first half on 18th double-double of the season, Buffalo Bulls 102-79. The loss marks a 20-7 run and took a 43-38 lead scoring 23 points and collecting 11 the first time USF has allowed an into halftime. Buffalo would then rebounds. opponent other than UConn to outscore USF 59-41 in the second For USF, the loss marks the end score 100 points since they allowed half, including shooting 53 percent of an era, as the USF careers of FAU to score 101 on Dec. 28, 2001. from behind the three-point line in seniors Jespersen and Laia Flores “Buffalo was really, really good,” the game’s final 20 minutes. come to a close. The duo finish as coach Jose Fernandez said. “That’s While Buffalo was exploding, USF’s winningest senior class, with what sports is all about – and the USF was imploding. USF turned the 101 wins, and as the only senior class NCAA Tournament. And you’ve got ball over a total of 16 times over the to make four trips to the NCAA to give them credit – they played entire game, leading to 25 points off Tournament. really, really well.” turnovers for Buffalo. Jespersen finishes her USF career USF came into the tournament as “I think the points off of turnovers in 10th place in program history in the No. 6 seed in the Albany region really hurt,” Fernandez said. “We scoring with 1,462 points, passing – a seed that many associated with had 10 turnovers at halftime – and Renee Bellamy (1990-94) thanks to USF, including Fernandez, thought that’s a big number that strikes at her performance Saturday. Flores’ was too low. In addition to ending the you.” 217 assists in 2017-18 solidify her regular season with the most wins in Buffalo was able to collect 11 season as the new USF single-season program history (24), USF entered offensive rebounds, which led to 18 record for assists, surpassing herself the tournament with the 14th best second chance points for the lower- from 2016-17. RPI in the nation, partially due to seeded Bulls. Additionally, USF
E D I T O R
Behind lockdown pitching, USF swept Army (7-12) over the weekend, winning 12-0 Friday, 5-2 Saturday and 5-4 Sunday. The sweep extends USF’s (15-6) win streak to eight games, all of which have been played at USF Baseball Stadium. In the streak, USF has given up an average of just two runs per game. On Friday, redshirt sophomore Shane McClanahan and sophomore Carson Ragsdale combined to throw a no-hitter against the Black Knights. It was the Bulls’ first-ever combined no hitter in program history and the 22 strikeouts between the two were a program record. McClanahan threw six scoreless innings in the win, extending his now nation-leading scoreless innings streak to 30.2 this year. “Both Shane (McClanahan) and Rags(dale) were extremely
sharp tonight,” coach Billy Mohl said Friday. “They commanded the strike zone well with their fastball and were able to put hitters away with quality pitches when ahead in the count. All the credit goes to them both and I’m so proud of them.” On Saturday, Peter Strzelecki didn’t allow the Black Knights to record a hit until there were two outs in the sixth inning. Army then rallied to push across two runs in the top half of the inning, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead as the Bulls had already scored a combined five runs in the first and fifth innings. “Every time Pete pitches, it feels like we play a two hour and fifteenminute game,” Mohl said Saturday. “He pounds the strike zone, had no walks and 11 strikeouts. He gave up a few hits in the sixth, but overall he had good stuff and pitched well.” Contrary to the prior two games, the Black Knights put pressure
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USF didn’t prove its case for a four-seed against Buffalo Commentary
By Brian Hattab S T A F F
W R I T E R
If USF was trying to prove to the world that it deserved a higher seed than the No. 6 seed it received, it failed drastically. For a team that averaged just under 62 points per game allowed, allowing 102 points in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament is embarrassing.
USF had not allowed an opponent other than UConn to reach the century mark since December 2001. No disrespect to the Bulls’ opponent, No. 11 seed Buffalo, but they are not the Huskies. Speaking of UConn – after keeping the Huskies to just 70 points and a 16-point victory over USF in the AAC championship
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