Strong: Bulls must not look ahead

TAMPA — message to South Florida is short and sweet: Don't get caught looking past Tulsa.

The Bulls (8-1, 5-1) have never won a conference title and need to beat the Golden Hurricane at 7:30 tonight on ESPN to remain on course for a showdown against unbeaten UCF for the AAC’s Eastern Division championship.

USF visits the No. 15 Knights next week, when a berth in the league title game could be on the line.

“We know Tulsa is going to be a really good opponent for us. The thing we can't do is look ahead. We've just got to take it one game at a time,” Strong said.

“I told them it's a single-game elimination now,” the coach added. “Each game is a championship game and we've just got to be ready and be prepared to go play.”

The Bulls rebounded from the only loss with a rout of Connecticut two weeks ago. They used the team's third open date of the season to focus on fundamentals and get ready for Tulsa (2-8, 1-5), which has lost three straight.

Strong shouldn't have had much difficulty keeping his team's attention.

Tulsa's lone conference victory came against Houston, the team that upset USF and temporarily knocked the Bulls out of the Top 25 three weeks ago.

“We went into the season knowing we had to play well week-in and week-out,” Strong said. “Now we're sitting here at 8-1, and we know this is a big game for us. It's at home, it's senior night and it's a good way for us to send our seniors out the right way.”

Charlie Strong’s