A fifth-year senior transfer from Oakland University in Auburn, Michigan, Jones arrived in Tampa Bay with plenty of experience in a zone defense that upset No. 3 Kentucky during the NCAA Tournament on Mar. 21, 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIsaiah Jones is our best zone defender, one of the benefits of the transfer portal area is he\u2019s coming from a school that played zone for 40 minutes, and he\u2019s elite at it,\u201d\u2019 coach Hodgson said. \u201cHe\u2019s an elite talker, he directs traffic, and he was kind of that anchor for us tonight, so I want to make sure to give him a proper shout-out because he was phenomenal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another impactful defender for the Bulls was senior forward Izaiyah Nelson<\/a>, who achieved his 200th career block during his fourth blocked shot of the game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While Nelson recorded his seventeenth double (2nd most nationally) of the season with 17 points and 14 rebounds, his defensive presence provided insurance for his teammates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI still try not to let my man get past me, but I know if he does, I have protection at the rim and trust in [Nelson] that he\u2019ll be there and have my back,\u201d guard CJ Brown<\/a> said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Up by two with 7:46 left in the first half, Brown joined the block party when he emphatically spiked a layup attempt to the floor. USF soon pulled away to a 47-31 lead at halftime.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n USF never looked back, staying in front for the rest of the night. Many fans spent the second half gathering above the student section, where they went tarps off, twirling their shirts in unison.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know where those guys came from, but that was electric,\u201d Hodgson said. \u201cSomeone told me security tried to get them out of there. We\u2019ve got to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Guards Wes Enis<\/a> and Joseph Pinion<\/a> were the Bulls\u2019 leading scorers with 20 and 19 points, respectively.\u00a0 USF\u2019s best shot tonight, however, was at the free-throw line.\u00a0<\/p>\n USF attempted 35 and watched 30 of them go through the net.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The team\u2019s high-tempo offense forces an average of 28.4 free throw attempts a game, the highest average of any team in the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Opposing defenses this season may have a better chance chasing down an actual bull than USF\u2019s stampeding squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe play fast-paced, so everybody\u2019s scrambling, running after us,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo it\u2019s hard to stay disciplined and keep your defensive goals when you\u2019re chasing after us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n USF is on a chase of its own, seeking its first conference title since the 23-24 season. The Bulls need to maintain its conference lead to skip the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. \u00a0USF wins in the semifinals and championship would give USF its first bid to the NCAA March Madness Tournament since 2012. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Bulls travel to Houston on Feb. 25 to face Rice University. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_1637-1024x666.jpeg\")
CJ Brown during the University of South Florida\u2019s 87-66 win over the University of Memphis on Feb. 19\u00a0
Photo by Gabriel Ballester-Rivera\u00a0| The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n
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Written by: Dominic Feo<\/a> on February 24, 2026.
Last revised by: Alisha Durosier<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isaiah Jones (left) and Izaiyah Nelson (right) during the University of South Florida\u2019s 87-66 win over the University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-167731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}