7-13-15

The Oracle M O N D AY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5 I V O L . 5 2 N O. 1 3 4

Inside this Issue

w w w. u s fo r a c l e. co m

The Index

News.................................................................1 Lifestyle......................................................4 Opinion.......................................................6

classifieds..............................................7 Crossword.........................................7 sports............................................................8

U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F LO R I DA

Holding white-collar crime accountable

LI F E STYLE

Muslim artist shows strength and struggles in new gallery. Page 4

Montage

n New USF graduate

certificate to prevent money laundering, boost students’ hiring potential.

By Christopher Collier A S S T .

N E W S

E D I T O R

S PORTS Two Bulls take talents overseas to compete in the World University Games. BACK

Tampa is a growing economy financially speaking.

However, with this growth comes more people seeking to take advantage of loopholes and get away with taking money from their place of employment.

Director of the Pippenger School of Accountancy Uday Murthy said roughly 600 new positions will be opening up in the Tampa Bay area from Citibank alone in the area

of business risk assessment, including in the growing antimoney laundering field.

To train students for the rising demand for forensic accounting, USF launched a new graduate certificate program in Compliance, Risk and Anti-Money Laundering this summer, which was recently featured in a blog on the Wall Street Journal.

Graduate students in the Muma College of Business have the opportunity for an additional credential on their resume with the new certificate that trains students to combat white collar criminal practices like money laundering.

The primary course in the certification sequence is the risk management and legal compliance taught by USF professor and former FBI investigator of 25 years, Kerry Myers.

This summer, Myers had 33 students enrolled, including 20 from the master’s of cybersecurity program and 13 who are working on graduate degrees in the College of Business.

“Almost every publicly traded company out there has various risks that is has to manage and it manages it through various techniques,” Myers said.

Myers said regulatory risks are one of the most common risks corporations and financial institutions have to manage.

Simply put, a regulatory risk is an employee breaking the law by breaking rules and regulations set out by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“One of the ways that boards of directors, working through their officers and their internal audit department, one of the ways they control or mitigate regulatory risk is through com-

pliance programs,” Myers said.

By using a program called the Audit Command Language (ACL) script, forensic accountants and investigators are able to decipher irregularities in money traffic.

For example, the system works to find patterns indicative of money laundering.

Suppose there’s a control over an employee’s purchasing power that caps his purchase limit at $1,000.

“What a clever employee could do is have, let’s say it’s $1,500, so split it up,” Murthy said. “$900 and $600 so there would be two consecutive orders placed to the same vendor by the same employee, both of which are right below the $1,000 limit. So that’s something you could run a little ACL script that says ‘find two

n See MONEY on PAGE 2

USF research company to battle cancer with Tumor-on-a-Dish

By Jessica Prakke C O R R E S P O N D E N T

One of the biggest troubles in treating cancer is finding the right treatment without using up the patient’s options, as once a type of treatment is used, it can’t be used again.

According to the National Cancer Society, over 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and over 500,00 will die from the disease.

On June 18, the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research announced the finalization of a funding agreement with TransGenex

Nanobiotech, Inc. (TGN). The Florida Institute is a non-profit that works with universities and research institutions to help commercialize new products, and this public funding for TGN will be used toward the commercialization of the product “Tumor-on-a-Dish.”

TGN founder Shyam Mohapatra said Tumor-on-a-Dish could revolutionize the way the world treats cancer.

“Ninety-five percent of cancer drugs fail,” he said. “One reason they fail is because of the way they go about fighting (cancer).”

Shyam Mohapatra and his wife and TGN co-founder Subhra

Mohapatra have worked to create Tumor-on-a-Dish through technologies licensed by USF. TGN was founded in 2004 by Shyam Mohapatra and Subhra Mohapatra as a spinoff company of USF, and the company is currently going through the patent process with one of their products.

Within the microscopic confines of Tumor-on-a-Dish, nanofibers grow to make a fibrous match with a mixture of tumor cells to reflect how cancerous tumors form in the human body.

While traditional cancer research applies new treatments to cancer cells, this product would

allow researchers to directly apply them to tumors.

TGN originally developed the product for treating breast cancer but later realized this product could treat any cancer. The company has successfully applied this product in 18 cancer cell labs and with 7 different types of cancer.

“We could actually change the paradigm of how we discover cancer drugs,” Mohapatra said.

He said this product will hopefully allow pharmacists and doctors to test different cancer drugs on a tumor before administering medication to a patient. As the

n See CANCER on PAGE 5

2

MONEY

Continued from FRONT

consecutive orders by the same employee that are both under a thousand but to the same vendor’ … Once you have that script going you can run it on a thousand records, ten thousand records, a million records.”

Forensic accounting is similar to investigating a crime scene, following clues to the perpetrator the way a detective finds a murderer. Myers presented another example that forensic accountants, and by extension the students taking the certificate, manage.

“You send me a bill, I make sure the bill’s legitimate and I pay you the money I owe you,” he said. “Well if I wanted to steal money, I set up a fake vendor in a fake name at an address that’s connected to me, or my girlfriend, or my wife and I start — every month — I write a $10,000 check and I make it look like I’m paying for tires or oil or whatever my business is and actually I’m sending the check to my girlfriend.”

To be admitted to the certificate program, a student must have been accepted to a master’s program in the Muma College of business or be seeking a master’s of cybersecurity.

Murthy said this new certificate will give USF graduates preference when looking for a job.

“They are looking for folks, for graduates, that have this skill set,” Murthy said. “Now what we’re hoping is with this student that has a graduate certificate would be much more attractive to those employers than someone that doesn’t and they have to do all the training.”

Murthy said it normally takes several months to train a potential employee the same skills as the certificate program and this is a major factor in who is and isn’t hirable in the growing market. Having to spend the money on training a new hire, which includes hotel fees and travel expenses to send an individual to another state, is quickly becoming old hat.

“A student going through this program is going to have several legs up over and above someone who’s just a graduate of, say, accounting or just informa-

M O N DAY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

tion systems who would have to undergo a lot of internal training,” Murthy said.

Murthy said an employee may have a line-item in their resume from the training a workplace offers, the benefit of having this certificate means no matter where the certificate holder goes for employment, they can tangibly prove they have the skills necessary to succeed.

Murthy and Myers see the certificate program as being a staple in future accountancy curriculums.

“In 10 years, this will be a core course in all colleges of business that is my prediction,” Myers said. “In fact, do you know how many accounting textbooks out there? Hundreds.

You know how many textbooks out there (for this curriculum)?

One.” “We’re sort of in a sweet spot,” Murthy said. “We’ve already talked about Tampa being kind of this hotbed of anti-money laundering efforts from all these companies like Citibank, etc. and then we have the expertise.”

The Pippinger School of Accountancy, according to Murthy, has a national reputation for educating students on accounting information systems, the intersection between accounting and IT. “We have that strength, the Tampa Bay area has these companies that are building capacity in this area,” Murthy said.

“So it was just a nice marriage of these forces that has enabled us to be on the forefront of this field.”

Starting this fall, the newest class will come into the certification program. The class is fully online and according to Myers and Murthy, this broadens the accessibility of the program as well as focusing the attention on USF. “We want to be recognized as the go to place for this,” Murthy said. “Could other universities do this? Sure, they could. But like I’ve already said, I think we have this unique blend of circumstances and expertise and companies already here.

To where I think we’re probably better placed than a lot of universities to pull this off as we’ve done. I think what I’d like to see is us growing, I’d like to see the demand for what we’re offering to exceed supply.”

●

T H E O R AC L E

USF sues drug corporation for not meeting settlement

By Russell Nay A S S T .

N E W S

E D I T O R

Most universities are not willing to allow outside companies to profit from inventions and patents produced by its faculty — especially not for free.

USF representatives are suing drug corporation CoMentis Inc. located in San Francisco for what the university’s board of trustees claims is a breach of a settlement agreement. The original agreement, reached in 2012, was over patent infringement involving four patents used in Alzheimer’s research licensed

by USF. While CoMentis paid an initial $150,000 as part of the settlement, the corporation informed USF in writing it will not meet another agreed upon payment of $450,000, according to a legal complaint by USF submitted on June 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa For failing to make the second payment, USF is suing CoMentis for the $450,000, interest on the payment and reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses, as stated in the complaint.

This lawsuit originated from a case filed in 2010 by the Alzheimer’s Institute of America (AIA) against CoMentis, three other research companies, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania. AIA accused those involved of experimenting with four research patents it owned, claiming former USF professor Michael Mullan gave the institute legal rights to the patents.

Mullan was a co-inventor of the four inventions covered in the patents, including a method of predicting a predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease and lab mice with a mutant gene that causes the illness. According to the patent listings on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website, the four patents are assigned to AIA. USF then intervened in the lawsuit and explained that it, not AIA, held the rights to the patent, as Mullan helped develop the inventions while he was an employee at USF. USF also stated that Mullan was not the sole inventor of the inventions in question and therefore could not legally assign the patents.

The court involved in this case struck down AIA’s lawsuit

and ruled USF had at least partial ownership of the patents, allowing USF to enter settlement agreements with each of the prior defendants and collect more than $1 million in resulting payments.

CoMentis, however, is disputing the university’s ownership of the patents according to USF’s complaint and claimed that a post-trial ruling in the 2010 case denied USF’s motion to obtain full ownership rights — therefore making it impossible to determine USF’s ownership status.

In its complaint, USF stated this claim “leads to absurd results” and stated CoMentis did not hold this view while negotiating the original 2012 settlement agreement.

Alternatively, it stated, if CoMentis did hold this view while agreeing to its settlement with the university, “then USF reserves the right to amend this complaint to add appropriate allegations of fraud.”

Due to the university’s policy not to speak about ongoing litigation, a USF spokesperson declined comment on the lawsuit or related topics. This includes the potential concern of outside companies profiting from university-based research and technology.

as a whole are consistent with older data but described individual years as having a large enough difference to warrant further study.

Resources are divided into two categories: medical services and ambulatory pharmacy services. Medical services include such things as procedure, surgery, evaluation and management services. The actual physician services are excluded from the medical services category. Ambulatory pharmacy refers to the management of medication and of direct

patient care involving medicine.

The year-to-year data shows that quality of care and resource use are negatively correlated, for inpatients in particular. This means there could be a chance to decrease resource use according to Quast.

The relationship varied by which year, plan type and region the individual was in during the time of data gathering. In order to fully realize a study that can prove causality between quality and cost, Quast said more time and money is necessary.

Study may link quality and cost of care for diabetics

By Christopher Collier A S S T .

N E W S

E D I T O R

Newly hired associate professor in the College of Public Health Troy Quast has brought with him from Houston a study into the relationship between quality of care and relative resource use in diabetic patients.

The study consisted of 813 people enrolled in commercial insurance plans and studied their quality of care from 2009-2011.

Quast found that the results taken

M O N DAY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

●

T H E O R AC L E

3

4

Lifestyle UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

●

M O N D AY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

●

T H E O R AC L E

Local artist shows strength of Muslim women

By Christopher Collier A S S T .

Work from local artist Ameena Khan is now on exhibit in the CMC until July 31, featuring works such as “No Need for Rescue” (above) and “A Sacred Offer” (below).

ARTWORK PROVIDED BY AMEENA KHAN

N E W S

E D I T O R

When talking about Muslim women, one artist says there’s a tendency in America to categorize Muslim women into either the victim who needs to be rescued and saved from her people or from her religion.

Ameena Khan, local contemporary artist whose art communicates the everyday struggles and victories of Muslim women, said she is creating pieces that expand the narrative about Muslim women.

Hosted by the USF Department of Women and Gender Studies and artist-led organization Art2Action, Khan’s work will be featured in the on-campus gallery “Dialogue in Color,” which is free and open to the public in 202F of the College of Arts and Sciences Multidisciplinary Complex (CMC) until July 31.

Khan said she began wearing the hijab in 1998 when she was still in college. Becoming a Muslim as a white woman was a culture shock, not from her fellow Muslims but from her fellow Americans.

“I went from being a regular American – fitting in, no one looked at me twice,” Khan said.

“I was an American basically, you don’t even need to say ‘regular’. Just American and now I’m a foreigner. So I’ve had both sides of the equation where I’ve fit in and then I don’t fit in anymore. Where I’m part of the majority and then where people probably assumed I was Christian and now I’m obviously Muslim and so now I’m part of a minority. So it’s been a very interesting transition, something I didn’t expect at all. That experience is quite different than what one might experience if you were raised in a predominantly Muslim country.”

Khan said one of her main objectives in galleries like the one at the CMC, is to project stories of Muslim women that are complex and dive further into the emotional

burdens behind them.

One piece in particular, “No Need for Rescue” depicts a fierce Muslim woman glaring at the viewer from the frame. Her lips pursed and eyes fixed, her face and clothes left unpainted on an indigo backdrop, the piece demands attention.

“With that piece in particular, it’s addressing the idea of the Muslim woman being a victim of her religion, of the male figures in her family because that’s a common perspective – that the men are controlling the women,” Khan said.

The emotions Khan felt toward this and other misunderstandings of Muslim culture manifested themselves in an unexpected way when she began sketching “No Need for Rescue.” After about five sketches, she said the direction had shifted away from the original outline.

“I was going to move in a very different direction with the work,” Khan said. “But when the woman was realized and staring back at me on the canvas, as a sketch before I painted her, I realized she was much more powerful than what my original plan was. So I kind of went with it and tried to bring out the power and the energy behind the work.”

Ultimately the piece became a symbol for a woman who is very strong and not a victim, Khan said.

“In general, most Muslim women that you would meet are like that, they’re very brave and courageous and they believe in what they do and what they wear and how they choose to dress and I like that,” she said.

Khan describes herself as an emerging artist with a long road ahead of her in the Tampa art scene.

She moved here from her hometown of Gainesville three years ago. While she builds her portfolio in the city, Khan said the motivation behind her work is more than simple notoriety and fortune.

Her motivation comes from God and from spreading awareness and acceptance throughout the community, at universities in particular.

“My focus right now is creating a series of pieces for this show which is all about communicating the American Muslim woman perspective and then once that is ready, to have it travel to different universities because I think that is the best place to have those conversations,” Khan said.

She said women’s studies departments, religion departments and other fixtures of a college campus are where her work will have the greatest impact, not necessarily selling it at an art or street festival.

“I do that too, but I think the galleries at universities are more appropriate for my work,” she said.

Escape is a recurring theme in Khan’s work, many of her subjects look upward and even her brushstrokes tend to lift up and away from the canvas. She expressed this as a reaction to how Muslim women face various stigmas in the West, where they often want to escape from persecution and discrimination.

“There’s a very real need for Muslim women, and me as well, this need to escape the tension and the sadness and the fear,” she said.

Khan said fear was something that has shut down the conversation between Muslims and the rest of Western Civilization.

“Many of my friends have had scary experiences where their physical being is at risk, but thankfully I haven’t,” Khan said. “What I do feel is the barrier between people. So people are afraid to talk to me or avert their gaze or just don’t want to have that interaction.”

Khan said she would like to have a conversation, if only others were interested in what she has to say.

“There could be any number of reasons,” she said. “I don’t get to have those conversations because they’re not willing to have those conversations with me. So I feel the barrier and it’s a very significant difference between who I was when I wasn’t wearing the scarf to who I am now.”

M O N DAY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

●

5

T H E O R AC L E

CANCER

Continued from FRONT

tumor grows, its responses to different cancer treatment drugs can be recorded to determine which work best.

This allows for a more personalized cancer treatment, as doctors would already know which specific drug is most effective in a patient before prescribing a treatment. This would normally require much more time and guesswork, as doctors typically need to try a plethora of drug treatments on a patient and observe their effectiveness.

“Each cancer patient is different and unique,” Shyam Mohapatra said. “Cancer is a disease that has 650 genes controlling it, and that’s too many genes.”

The Florida Institute provided TGN with state funding to commercialize and publicize the product to entice more investors.

While the actual amount of funding remains undisclosed, TGN could receive up to $300,000 with the possibility of receiving another $200,000 in the future, according to an article on the

Tampa Bay Business Journal.

According to Sagar Galwankar, interim CEO of TGN and USF alumnus, the commercialization of the product will proceed in three stages. The first step requires getting the product to pharmaceutical industries to start clinical trials before taking it to patients.

Then, Galwankar said TGN needs to provide raw materials for companies to begin production of Tumor-on-a-Dish before finally bringing the product to market.

According to Shyam Mohapatra, the basic Tumor-ona-Dish costs between one million and two million dollars, while the discovery or trial process can cost up to five million dollars, and reaching the goal of personalized cancer treatments could cost up to $10 million.

“The only problem with biotech products is that they do take more time to create (than other products),” he said. “We have to look for the right kind of people with the right philosophy of investment. You have to use three to five year horizons … and people have to be visionary.”

Opinion

6

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

●

M O N D AY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

the Oracle Recognizing microaggression doesn’t police free speech the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Editor in Chief Alex Rosenthal oracleeditor@gmail.com Hearing someone say America is the land of opportunity or America is a melting pot, attribuGrace Hoyte oraclenewsteam@gmail.com tions the country is prided for, usually doesn’t spark a debate.

However, as reported by the Sports Editor Huffington Post, a seminar on inclusivity at the University of Vinnie Portell California considers those stateoraclesportseditor@gmail.com ments microaggressions, which are snarky, yet subtle comments Opinion Editor showing bias against another’s race or identity.

Isabelle Cavazos After UC presented a set of oracleopinion@gmail.com examples of microaggressions, created by a Columbia University Multimedia Editor researcher, with similar lists being used at schools such as the Adam Mathieu University of Missouri and Texas A&M University, critics began arguAssistant Editors ing that it limits free speech and Christopher Collier the discussion of controversial topRussell Nay ics in a place where they should be most protected.

While statements such as Graphic Artist “gender plays no part in who we Ashley Barzaga hire” and “affirmative action is racist” might not seem ill-intentioned, especially depending on Advertising Sales the context, a large part of the list Lauren Alford addresses everyday microaggresRachel Carpenter sions whose messages are less Abby Pereira ambiguous.

Instead of worrying that an awareness of microaggressions threatens free speech, universiThe Oracle is published Monday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and twice ties should accept that this awareweekly, Monday and Thursday, during the summer. ness is what makes people more The Oracle allocates one free issue to each student. mindful of their comments. They Additional copies are $.50 each and available at the should encourage faculty and stuOracle office (SVC 0002). dents to be self-critical of what

BY PHONE they say, and that doesn’t harm Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-6242 open discussions.

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-5190 For example, as the list menNews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-1888 tions, things that appear harmless, Sports ................

974-2842 such as asking a Latino or Asian Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-2398 American person to say something Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-2620 in their native language or a profesClassified . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-6242 sor continually mispronouncing a Website: usforacle.com student’s name, have the potenFacebook: facebook.com/usforacle Twitter: @USFOracle tial to leave the impression that the student is exotic or that the CORRECTIONS professor isn’t willing to learn a The Oracle will correct or clarify factual errors.

Contact Editor in Chief Alex Rosenthal at 974-5190. foreign name.

News Editor

Isabelle Cavazos

●

T H E O R AC L E

What you said Editor Isabelle Cavazos asked students their thoughts on new data from Cornell University that found that parents’ income correlates with what a student studies, with those from lower-income families studying science or math and those from higher-income families studying the humanities.

COLU M N I ST

Yet, one L.A. Times op-ed denounced the restriction of other, politically-charged examples since the U.S. Department of Education declares a “hostile learning environment” can lead to legal liability, and UC deems microaggressions hostile.

But, what those worried about microaggressions becoming the new trigger warnings forget is that context is everything.

Saying “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” can be said without referring to race or gender. Yet, when it’s said after a person belonging to a minority earns a position, the message then becomes that minorities are unfairly benefitting from their race.

As the creator of the list told the Huffington Post, microaggressions are often unknown to the speaker as offensive, while those who receive these comments are seen as oversensitive when bothered by them. A Time Magazine column went as far as to say that being white in and of itself is a microaggression.

Still, telling someone they are “interesting looking” or offering mirrors and nail files to students at a women’s engineering conference, which occurred at a Women Engineers Code Conference at Harvard, isn’t always complimentary.

Microaggression has moved from being discussed in the academic sphere to the public sphere, which allows people to be more conscious of them. Being affected by them doesn’t mean one is being too sensitive.

If anything, universities should embrace the notion of creating a more inclusive, progressive environment by being self-critical instead of being fearful their liberties are at stake.

Isabelle Cavazos is a senior majoring in English and Spanish.

“I disagree with that. I think growing up I saw a lot of kids from high-income families and they studied financial things rather than the humanities.”

— Fatima Somarriba, a senior majoring in economics “People who have problems with money will look to something to solve that problem. Within the well-off community, there’s a prestige to studying the humanities.” ­— Azd Al-Mashal, a junior majoring in cell and molecular biology “I feel like in lower-income homes, they aspire for you to do more. Wealthier people can turn something like the arts into a career.”

— Sachaye Walker, a freshman majoring in education “The correlation might be that students from low-income families might be more determined to get their families out of that.”

— Mattias Ciabatti, a graduate student studying business administration

Classifieds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

To place a classified ad go to HELP WANTED Veterinary Technician/Assistant needed for animal hospital close to campus. Part-time or full-time. Experience a plus, but will train. Email resume to acahhiring@gmail.com.

●

Crossword

M O N D AY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

http://www.usforacle.com/classifieds The Oracle needs photographers!

If you want to see your photos in print, email the editor at oracleeditor@gmail.com

●

T H E O R AC L E

7

Sports

8

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

●

M O N D AY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

●

T H E O R AC L E

Pair of Bulls excel in World University Games

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

E D I T O R

Courtney Williams and Matthew O’Neal, who were named the USF female and male athletes of the year after record-breaking seasons, took their athletic dominance to a new level in Gwanju, South Korea in the World University Games over the past two weeks.

O’Neal was one of 12 competitors to advance to the final round of the triple jump event, but his time at the games ended as he placed eighth with a jump of 52 feet-8.75 inches, falling four feet shy of the winner.

At 21, he was the secondyoungest athlete to qualify for the final round.

O’Neal’s time in Korea was brief, but fellow-Bull Williams will have at least one more day

to chase a gold medal after a late scare from Japan.

Williams stepped up to the free throw line Saturday in double overtime against Japan (3-2) in a familiar situation.

After closing out several games to help lead the Bulls to the second round of the NCAA Tournament four months ago, Williams showed off her poise under pressure again Saturday when she sank two free throws with 10 seconds left to give Team USA a four-point cushion and the 102-98 victory.

She played 43 minutes in Team USA’s first overtime game since losing to Yugoslavia in overtime in the 1987 games.

Williams scored 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting while also adding 10 rebounds and five assists.

Aside from Japan, no other team had finished within 10 points of Team USA (5-0) throughout the tournament.

“That was one of the craziest games I’ve seen in a while or been part of as a coach,” USA coach Joe McKeown said in a statement to USA Basketball.

“I want our players to be able to enjoy it and move forward.

We’ll get ready right away for the gold medal game. That’s why we came here.”

Awaiting Team USA in the championship game today is Canada, which has also gone undefeated up until this point.

Both teams have had two shared opponents in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Team USA defeated Hungary 84-43 and the Czech Republic 92-54.

Team Canada played much closer games against these opponents, defeating Hungary 70-65 and the Czech Republic 61-53.

The game will be broadcast on ESPNU this morning and results can be found online at gwangju2015.com.

Courtney Williams helped seal Team USA’s semi-finals win over Japan as she made two free throws with 10 seconds remaining.

ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

Notebook

Rudd shooting for NBA roster spot

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

Victor Rudd was undrafted out of USF, but averaged 15.9 points per game for the Delaware 87ers of the NBA D-League last season. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

E D I T O R

Victor Rudd spent his first season out of USF playing in the NBA D-league with the Delaware 87ers and now has an outside shot of earning a promotion to the NBA after accepting an invitation to the New Orleans Pelicans summer league team.

Rudd started 41 games last season, averaging 15.9 points per game on 43.1 percent shooting on a team that included Jared Cunningham, Jordan McRae and Sean Kilpatrick.

Two games into the summer league schedule, Rudd has showed he has the capability to compete at the NBA level, but also that he’s still a bit inconsistent.

In Rudd’s first game, the 6-foot9, 235-pound forward scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting (3-of5 on 3-pointers) and added six rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes.

The former Bull struggled to score in his most recent game Saturday. He scored five points on 1-of-7 shooting and missed all three of his 3-point attempts.

Players competing with Rudd for a roster spot include Seth Curry of Duke, Larry Drew of UCLA, and Will Sheehey of Indiana.

In order to make the roster, Rudd must avoid turning in another woeful shooting performance as he did Saturday.

Ciabatti named to Ray Guy Award watch list Entering his senior season, USF punter Mattias Ciabatti became the third Bull to be named to a national watch list when he was nominated for the Ray Guy Award Watch List on Thursday.

Ciabatti was one of USF’s lone bright spots last season, as he led the AAC in punting. His average distance of 44.4 yards, which ranked 10th in the nation, helped

hold off opposing offenses when the Bulls’ offense regularly struggled to sustain drives.

The senior punter enters his final season at USF on pace for setting the school record for punts, punting yardage, and average yards per punt.

Flores helps Spain win European U20 Championship USF sophomore guard Laia Flores averaged 6.2 points per game throughout the FIBA U20 European Women’s Championship, but broke out for a tournament-high 11 points to help Spain cruise past France, 66-47, in the championship game.

Both unbeaten headed into the final game of the tournament, Spain proved to be the best team this year after losing in the final in 2014.

Flores added three rebounds and two assists and was 2-of-5 on 3-point shooting.