The Revival of USF
The glory days of San Francisco basketball may have been in the late 50’s led by Bill Russell, but the Dons were dominating the West Coast Conference long after that. This was a program that won the conference from 1972 to 1974 and then again from 1977 to 1982. And then it happened.
On an August morning in 1982, school president Reverend John Lo Schiavo announced that the basketball program would no longer exist. The Dons were on probation multiple times in the late 70’s and players were receiving special treatment. The situation was finally too much for the school when All-American Quintin Dailey assaulted a fellow student. The investigation that followed led to the unearthing of many, many violations.
San Francisco than gave itself the death penalty. But the program was not gone for long. In 1985 the program was resurrected and former player Jim Brovelli took over the program. Coach Brovelli took the team back to respectability, but failed to reach the postseason and resigned in 1995. Over the 25 years since the program was reinstated, the Dons have reached one NCAA Tournament, in 1998. They went to the NIT in 2005 and reached the CIT last season. Coach Jessie Evans had his moments at USF, most notably the 2005 NIT appearance, but the newest coach, Rex Walters, may just be the right man for the job.
Coach Walters took over a team in rebuilding mode. In the 2008-2009 season he managed to lead the Dons to just three conference victories. The following year he managed to post a 7-7 record in conference play. In 2010-2011 he led the Dons to their first postseason appearance since 2005 by going to the CIT. The CIT may not be the postseason tournament this team needs to revive the program, but it is a step in the right direction. While the strengthening of the West Coast Conference will be good for USF in the long run, it may hurt this particular season. Yet, San Francisco has battled through worse situations and the talent in the basketball program is rising and young players who may not know much about Don Lofgran, Bill Russell, K.C. Jones or Bill Cartwright are still coming to San Francisco to play in a strong conference and help revive a program that has a deep basketball history.
Read the in-depth men’s basketball preview for this team
