If you really want to see a box score, here you go. Or go hang out with Casual Hoya. I'm just going to post these pictures and GIFs and move on.

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I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty optimistic about tomorrow's game against Georgetown. I have no stats to back this up, but only for the fact that this game feels almost exactly like the 2010 game. This will probably end in complete and utter failure tomorrow morning, but just roll with it.

Georgetown is a nationally ranked team (#8 in 2010, #14 in 2012) that dominated a national power in their previous game (Duke in 2010, UConn in 2012). After their game against the Bulls, the Hoyas take on one of their fiercest rivals (Villanova in 2010, Syracuse in 2012). USF is having unprecedented success in the Big East, and could reach even greater heights with a win (4 game winning streak in 2010, 4 games over .500 in conference play in 2012). Add the fact that the crowd will be just as sparse with the 11 AM start time and all we need to do is find Dominique Jones some extra eligibility. Given our Compliance Ninjas success over the years, this might be a possibility.

Not saying this will help, just saying.

Nightmare vs Son of Whyachi (via Battlebotvideos)

Okay, it wasn't that bad. But after a few minutes of play, it was obvious which team was dictating the terms of the game. And that was Marquette.

In the pregame article, Ken said USF needed to "find a quality shot within the system." Marquette played an excellent defensive game designed to prevent exactly that.

USF matched Marquette's defensive intensity for a while -- at one point both teams were 6 of 18 shooting -- but late in the first half, Marquette's offensive opportunities starting getting easier while USF's did not.

Here's a detailed look at one USF possession, and how Marquette's smothering defense prevented USF from getting said quality shot.

After a Marquette miss, they hustle back on defense, forcing Anthony Collins to slow it down and wait and set up USF's half-court offense. Marquette isn't quite in the 2-3 zone they played all night, but you can see it starting to form up in the below picture:

Collins dribbles right as Ron Anderson Jr. sets a lazy screen. The Marquette defender beats the screen to the high side, rendering it ineffective:

With nobody open to pass to and no space to dribble into, Collins throws it back left to Jawanza Poland:

After the jump, the rest of the play, and how this sequence epitomized USF's night.

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Yes, it's great to see USF basketball having some Big East success, since it hasn't come around that often. And they're in good shape to complete #TheQuestFor16. We have a KenPom subscription, and according to Pomeroy's data the Bulls are about a 70% favorite to win at least 16 games, and the same favorite to go at least 9-9 in Big East play (which makes sense since all remaining games on the schedule are in conference).

But let's calm down a little bit with the 20 wins and the bubble talk, shall we?

Don't forget USF has three stinky losses on their resume -- at Auburn, and Old Dominion and Penn State in the Hall of Fame tournament. All three of those teams clock in with KenPom ratings in the triple digits. On the flip side, the Bulls have just one top-50 win so far, against Seton Hall. Because of those bad losses, and the fact that they already have eight of them, USF is going to need something like 19 or 20 wins to get themselves on the NCAA Tournament bubble. This is very similar to two years ago, when they hit 20 wins and still didn't come that close to making the field.

Also, their Big East schedule is heavily backloaded. They have the game at Marquette tomorrow night, a visit to Georgetown next week, and then four straight KenPom top 50 teams to end the regular season -- at Syracuse, Cincinnati, at Louisville, and West Virginia. So far USF has made a lot of hay against their peers and teams that are worse than they are. But things are going to get tougher down the stretch.

This season is shaping up as a nice surprise and it's trending towards a trip to one postseason tournament or another. (Collin is probably pre-mourning the financial pain of a Bern's bet he made before conference play began, which he's well on his way to losing.) Let's let the surprise keep unfolding and try not to raise our expectations or dream too big at this point in the season.

5-2. Tied for third. If I told you at the beginning of the year that we would start Big East play like this, would you have believed me? Well, that's where we are now after USF's big 75-59 win against DePaul today at the Allstate Arena.

Augustus Gilchrist does what he does against DePaul, and led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. JAWANZA! had 19 off the bench, including another monster dunk that we will see on SportsCenter tomorrow. Hugh Robertson had nine points and nine rebounds, and Anthony Collins also had nine points along with three assists.

Like the game against St. John's, USF looked like the better team from the start, and they were able to slowly but surely pull away from DePaul as the game wore on. They were able to get whatever they wanted after breaking through the DePaul press and shot an outstanding 56% from the field on the afternoon. The entire team did a good job against the high pressure defense, only committing 13 turnovers when the Blue Demons normally force 18 a game.

The Bulls' defense was excellent as always, and held DePaul under 34% shooting today. Cleveland Melvin had 17 points (although he needed 18 attempts), and Jamee Crockett had 15 off the bench, but Brandon Young was held to only 6 points, well below his season average. Hugh Robertson's defense made it difficult for Young to get off any shots, and he couldn't make a basket in 13 attempts.

The Bulls also did another quality job on the glass, outrebounding the smaller Blue Demons 40-29. While Toarlyn Fitzpatrick had eight rebounds, Robertson and Victor Rudd each did a great job attacking the boards and keeping DePaul from getting second and third chances.

I really can't say enough about our transition defense today. They were able to get back quickly, and limited DePaul to only eight points off of turnovers. USF also kept DePaul from getting any buckets off of the fast break. Bravo guys.

Up next is Marquette on Tuesday with a chance to move up to second in the Big East (behind only Syracuse). I know this is pretty exciting.

4 more to go.