NEWS » the Bulls fell to 0-4 against ranked opponents under co

MINNEAPOLIS -- Richard Pitino called his teams 37-point win over Georgia Southern a major step forward, but not because of the point total. It was more how his players shared the ball against their overmatched nonconference opponents.Dupree McBrayer scored 18 points and Akeem Springs added 16 off the bench to lead the Gophers over Georgia Southern 86-49 on Friday night for their third straight win.Minnesota (9-1) had 23 assists and 12 3-pointers -- both season highs, and Pitino said his players were passing up good shots for great ones. And with three more games before the Big Ten portion of Minnesotas schedule starts, the Gophers got back on track after barely surviving against New Jersey Institute of Technology earlier in the week.He sat us down and told us we need to improve, Nate Mason said of the NJIT scare. Mason finished with 14 points and nine assists. Obviously we disrespected each other, not even him, but just each other. Didnt go out there and play for each other as hard as we possibly could. So we sat the guys down had a team meeting and said, `Weve got to come in and work the next day.Minnesota used an early second-half run to put the Eagles away after letting them hang around earlier. The Gophers built an 18-point lead midway through the first half before failing to score a field goal in the final five minutes of the half.But they took advantage of their speed and size to start the second, scoring 12 of their first 16 points of the half on dunks and fast breaks.I keep telling the guys: defend, rebound and run, Pitino said. Thats always kind of been my mentality with these guys. They did it, and I think the sharing of the ball, you could tell it was contagious.The Eagles (4-5), whove still never beaten a Big Ten team in school history, couldnt recover and lost their second straight after winning three in a row.Im embarrassed, Eagles coach Mark Byington said. We have some prideful guys in the locker room too, and theyre embarrassed too. Thats not what were all about and we didnt show up tonight.Ike Smith led Georgia Southern with 12 points and Jake Allsmiller added 11.Springs went 4 for 8 from 3-point range for Minnesota. He keyed an early 14-5 run with 11 points in three minutes to stretch Minnesotas first-half lead to 34-16. The Gophers slowed down after that, though, and didnt have a field goal in the final 5:09 of the first. The Eagles outscored Minnesota 16-11 to end the first and trailed 45-32 at halftime.BIG PICTUREGeorgia Southern: Playing against Minnesotas bigger and stronger players, the Eagles got only 16 combined points from backcourt duo Smith and Tookie Brown, who entered the game averaging nearly 36 points between them.Minnesota: The Gophers regained some momentum after narrowly surviving by six points against NJIT on Tuesday.ROAD WORRIESGeorgia Southern has three more road games in a brutal stretch to start the season, in which the Eagles play two of their first 12 games on their home court. Right now, we just lack some things, Byington said. Its on me. Its bad preparation. Its bad scheduling. The one thing weve got to do, as Ive told the guys, the only thing theyve got to worry about, is sticking together.HURTING FOR MINUTESMichael Hurt finished with seven points in six minutes, including his first-ever 3-pointer. Pitino praised the freshmans work ethic. They think if you work hard youre supposed to play, thats not always the case. My goal is to win the game, thats it. When youre able to reward guys like that to play, its really good.UP NEXTGeorgia Southern: Gets a rematch on Tuesday at Florida Gulf Coast, the team that snapped the Eagles three-game winning streak 85-82 last weekend.Minnesota: Continues its nonconference schedule when the Gophers host another 4-4 team, Northern Illinois, on Sunday. Cheap Air Max 270 For Sale . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. Air Max 270 Cheap Authentic . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. http://www.wholesaleairmax270australia.com/ . -- Ken Appleby made 32 saves for his first shutout of the season to lead the Oshawa Generals to a 2-0 win over the Belleville Bulls on Wednesday in Ontario Hockey League action. Cheap Air Max 270 Wholesale . Calgary scored on the first shift, and Michael Cammalleri scored twice as the Flames cruised to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. Cheap Air Max 270 Free Shipping .Y. - Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson has earned NHL first star of the week honours after winning in his first three appearances of the season. TAMPA, Fla. -- Frank Martins uneasiness about how No. 16 South Carolina might respond to its first loss of the season was unfounded.PJ Dozier and Duane Notice assured that, stepping up in the absence of leading scorer Sindarius Thornwell to help the Gamecocks (9-1) shrug off cold shooting and pull away to a 77-66 victory over South Florida on Saturday.Dozier scored 11 of his 23 points in the closing minutes and Notice gave South Carolina a spark by contributing 14 of his 15 points after halftime to help the Gamecocks bounce back from last Mondays 67-64 loss to Seton Hall.It was my concern for this basketball team coming into this game, coming off our first loss, being so young, that some guys wouldnt handle it (well). Losing is an epidemic, and losing is not good. And young people dont know how to handle losing, Martin said.It was our first experience as a team to go through it. I think we kind of came out and played the first half like somebody took our dog. We didnt have our enthusiasm, the fight that weve played with every single day out, Martin added. But Im equally as pleased, I thought we played well in the second half as a basketball team. Different guys doing things. Obviously PJ continues to grow as a player here and do unbelievable things. But like I told him, its also his challenge.The Gamecocks (9-1) improved to 2-1 without Thornwell, who has been suspended indefinitely for violating athletic department policy.With Sind being out, we had only two seniors out on the floor. So as Coach said, were young. Were a young team and were just looking to grow, Dozier said.We came out first half a little sluggish. We make our offense out of our defense and wasnt doing that the first half, the 6-foot-6 sophomore guard added. We went into the locker room and Coach gave us that word that we needed and came out with the intensity we should have started with.Jahmal McMurray led USF (5-4) with 25 points. Malik Fitts had 12 points and Geno Thorpe finished with 11 points and nine rebounds for the Bulls, who led 37-31 at halftime.South Carolina began the second half with a 17-9 burst to take a 48-41 lead. Dozier and Notice keyed the initiial surge and Dozier took over down the stretch, when the Gamecocks led by as many as 13.ddddddddddddWe got, maybe, a little bit complacent. Didnt come out with the fire that we had in the first half, McMurray said. The second half, we just have to ... come out with the same fire.THE BIG PICTURESouth Carolina, which has its highest ranking since being No. 14 in the final poll of the 1997-98 season, obviously misses Thornwell, who leads them in assists, as well as scoring and rebounding. With Notice missing the first eight shots he attempted, including six from 3-point range, the Gamecocks trailed at halftime for the first time this season.Not surprisingly, South Florida faded down the stretch. Luis Santos made a layup to trim South Carolinas lead to 64-61 with 7 minutes left, however the Bulls didnt score again from the field until Bo Zeiglers basket with 29 seconds left.FIRST BIG TESTSouth Carolina is only Power 5 opponent USF is scheduled to face this season. The Bulls fell to 0-4 against ranked opponents under coach Orlando Antigua and have dropped 20 consecutive games to Top 25 opponents since knocking off No. 15 Louisville on the road on Feb. 29, 2012.POLL IMPLICATIONSThe Gamecocks may lose some ground in the next AP poll, however, rebounding on the road -- albeit against an opponent thats had its share of problems against a weak schedule -- will likely keep the Gamecocks in the Top 25.UNIENDO LOS TOROSUSF designated Saturday as Uniendo Los Toros, which in English translates to Uniting The Bulls. The game featured two of three Hispanic-American head coaches in NCAA Division I in South Carolinas Martin and USFs Antigua. Miamis Jim Larranaga is the third. Early arrivals among the announced crowd of 2,489 at the Sun Dome received white T-shirts commemorating the occasion.UP NEXTSouth Carolina: Returns home to face intrastate rival Clemson on Wednesday.South Florida: Faces Northern Illinois at home on Tuesday.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25. ' ' '