This mid-major women’s basketball powerhouse will host UConn, South Carolina, Duke this season
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UConn, South Carolina and Duke will all play at USF this upcoming season. Once again, head coach Jose Fernandez has assembled a challenging schedule for the Bulls.
Omar Little, the great Baltimore philosopher, once said, “It ain’t what you takin’, it’s who you takin’ it from… How you expect to run with the wolves come night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?”
It’s another way of saying, if you want to be the best, you have to play with the best.
That’s what South Florida’s women’s basketball program has tried to do during the regular season under head coach Jose Fernandez.
Last season, the Bulls had the fifth-toughest non-conference schedule in all of Division I women’s basketball. They then proceeded to go 13-4 in the American Athletic Conference and won the AAC Tournament to punch their ticket to March Madness for the 10th time since 2006 and fourth time in the last five seasons.
Over the years, Fernandez’s teams have beaten 22 AP Top 25-ranked opponents. They’ll have several chances to add to that total in the 2025-26 season
This year, USF is putting together another extremely challenging non-conference slate. One difference between last season and this one though is that they’ll get to play some of the top teams in the sport in their own house in the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Fla.
USF will host UConn, South Carolina and Duke during its non-conference schedule this season, welcoming in the two teams who faced off for the national title and another that advanced to the Elite Eight. The Blue Devils will visit on Nov. 20, the Gamecocks on Dec. 18, and the Huskies — the reigning national champions — on Dec. 3.
The South Carolina game is the return contest in a home-and-home series, as is the matchup with UConn. Fernandez offered to play the Blue Devils in Durham, North Carolina, this season since Duke visited last year, but Kara Lawson’s side agreed to come to Tampa for a second straight season. USF beat Duke last year, 65-56, serving as the Bulls’ lone Quad 1 victory of the season.
USF is coming off its 12th season of 20 or more wins under Fernandez. Since 2013, just three NCAA Tournaments have been played without USF in it as the Bulls have consistently dominated their competition in the AAC.
The Bulls will look a little different this season after longtime sharpshooter Sammie Puisis and dynamic point guard Mama Dembele exhausted their eligibility. USF also lost key contributors Romi Levy (Virginia) and Vittoria Blasigh (Miami) to the transfer portal. However, Fernandez reloaded his roster by adding four top transfers in IU Indy’s Katie Davidson, Jacksonville’s Edyn Battle, FAU’s Stefanie Ingram, and Kirsten Lewis-Williams of Buffalo. Leading rebounders Carlo Brito and L’or Mputu also return for the Bulls.
Fernandez, 53, is eyeing his 500th win this upcoming season as he enters his 26th year at the helm of the Bulls with 485 victories. The longtime USF coach is also beginning a two-year term as the president of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association this year, taking the reins from North Carolina’s Courtney Banghart. He will lead the organization through a crucial time as the House Settlement and revenue sharing begin to reshape college athletics.
“You want somebody in that position who really loves our game, somebody who has served for a long time, and somebody who is really going to move the needle,” South Carolina’s Dawn Staley said recently of Fernandez. “I think Jose is that guy.’’
USF will also play against a third team from last season’s Final Four, UCLA, at an event in Las Vegas in November. The Bulls will also face fellow mid-major power Fairfield there.
Additionally, to add to the Bulls’ stacked schedule, they’ll play against Minnesota in the 2025 Baha Mar Hoops: Pink Flamingo Championship Beach Division. In its second game in the Bahamas, USF will play either Harvard or Alabama, both of which also made the NCAA Tournament this past season.
