As campaigning for student body elections is well into its sec-ond week before voting begins Monday, over a dozen grievances have been filed against several candidates.

Against Andy Rodriguez and Mike Malanga’s ticket for student body president are at least four grievances, including complaints of one ticket’s staff member wearing a campaign shirt inside out in the SG office, a campaign photo barely showing a trade-marked SG pin and a Facebook post referring to Rodriguez and Malanga as one senator’s “mcm,” or man crush Monday,

While it may not match the flair of “Better Call Saul,” Student Government is using a touch of pizzazz to let students know about its parking appeals service.

“Two guys. One appeal pro-cess” is the motto for Solicitor General Daniel Christopher and

Attorney General Alex Johnson, who stand tall together on the fli-ers handed out around campus.

“A lot of students don’t know that our positions exist or even what the attorney gen-eral and the solicitor general do,” Christopher said. “We were looking for ways to brand our office and brand our services to the students.”

Many students have experi-enced getting a parking ticket,

usually after parking in a wrong spot or after seeing how long they can get away with not buy-ing a parking pass for the new semester. But Johnson said not every student is aware of parking appeals.

“(We wanted) to make sure the students know that there is an appeals process and also to just familiarize the faces of who is going to be helping them,”

The Oraclew w w . u s f o r a c l e . c o m U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D AT H U R S D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 I V O L . 5 2 N O . 8 0

Opinion.......................................................4 Lifestyle......................................................5

Classifieds..............................................8 Crossword......................................10

The Index

InsIde thIs Issue

Montage

SPORTSFormer Tennessee standout is in the opposite dugout this weekend. BACK

LIFESTYLEValentine dates you’ll never forget. Page 5

Appealing to students Grievances question student campaigns

By Allison LeslieC O R R E S P O N D E N T

By Alex RosenthalE D I T O R I N C H I E F

Mr. and Miss USF

On display in the Marshall Student Center atrium all week have been the crowns for the Mr. and Miss USF Scholarship Pageant. Seven ladies and five gentlemen will compete for their crown tonight at 7 in the MSC Ballroom. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

n See PARKING on PAGE 9 n See GRIEVANCES on PAGE 9

ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

sports.........................................................12

SG rebrands process to appeal parking tickets

Humans share 98 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, our closest living relative in the animal kingdom, but share zero percent of the rights.

To address the politics of animal advocacy in the U.S., Steven Tauber, chair of USF’s Department of Government and International Affairs, talk-ed to an audience of around 50 on Wednesday at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library as part of the Road Scholars lec-ture series.

“The animal advocacy move-ment is a wide-ranging, mass public social movement that seeks to improve the treat-ment of nonhuman animals,” Tauber said.

Animal advocacy, Tauber said, is divided into two major social movements: animal wel-fare and animal rights.

Animal welfare activists seek better treatment of ani-mals, but do not object to humans using animals for their own purposes.

Animal rights activists reject the concept that animals are property, and oppose humans using nonhuman animals for food, clothing, entertainment and scientific research.

Animal welfare activ-ists focus on winnable cam-paigns that will create tangible improvements for animals instead of spending resources on pursuing — what animal welfare activists view as — unrealistic goals set by animal rights activists.

“The concept of animal wel-fare ... focuses on small incre-mental changes that will work to improve how animals are treated within the framework of animals being property of humans,” Tauber said.

Animal rights activists, on the other hand, rely on litiga-

tion to gain rights for animals. “This is an important strat-

egy because it follows how other civil rights groups and movements have gone about getting rights through specific court cases,” Tauber said.

Tauber compared the cur-rent situation of animal rights to blacks living in pre-13th Amendment America, who were also at a political disad-vantage.

“If you want to affect change you go to your Legislature, that’s a fundamental aspect of democracy,” Tauber said. “African-Americans were dis-enfranchised and couldn’t vote, so they had no political representation. They couldn’t go to the state Legislature, governor or Congress, so they relied on litigation.”

Blacks lacked political power and resorted to litiga-tion, eventually winning their civil rights with the signing of the 13th Amendment.

“Litigation is a product of the politically disadvantaged, our courts respond to law not politics,” Tauber said. “Animals rights activists are politically disadvantaged as well. People like to eat meat, go to zoos … circuses … there are more people who believe the moon landing was staged, than (there are) vegans.”

While this makes for an arduous political climate, animal rights activists now attempt to win a similar civil rights battle for animals. In 2011, PETA tried to cite the 13th Amendment as their basis for argument in Tilikum v. SeaWorld.

Although the media largely mocked this attempt, inciting a string of lampooning from “Fox News,” “The Daily Show” and other news outlets, Tauber said he supported PETA’s end goal, but believed their tactics were not effective for litiga-tion.

PETA is known for their reliance on publicity stunts to affect change in animal rights. PETA’s president, Ingrid Newkirk, is unabashedly straightforward when discuss-ing PETA’s methods.

Newkirk has been quoted saying: “Probably everything we do is a publicity stunt … we are not here to gather mem-bers, to please, to placate, to make friends, we’re here to hold the radical line,” as well as saying, “We are complete press sluts.”

Steven Wise, president of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) is another active player in the fight for animal rights. Tauber said that unlike PETA, Wise filed cases using a novel but reasonable argument based on state common law

and habeas corpus. He also consulted with biol-

ogists to find plaintiffs and with social scientists to find politically advantageous juris-dictions. Though the adorable chimpanzee plaintiffs in the case — Tommy, Kiki, Hercules and Leo — lost the case, the media embraced Wise’s direc-tion and he garnered posi-tive feedback from NPR and Stephen Colbert.

Tauber also discussed the importance of public opinion in the wake of trials, citing George Zimmerman and O.J. Simpson as two examples of court rulings with controver-sial outcomes but widespread shifts in public opinion.

Regardless of the courtroom losses suffered by animal rights activists, animal rights

and welfare have advanced significantly since first anti-cruelty laws were established in 1860.

“Up until 1860 it wasn’t a crime to treat your animals however you wanted, “ Tauber said. “Whatever you wanted to do, whether beat or kill, it was legal.”

One hundred fifty years later, the treatment of animals has improved significantly, but there are more battles to be won, most taking place in a court of law.

“Our judges are unelected and unaccountable, they can’t be removed for making unpop-ular decisions,” Tauber said. “They respond to legal argu-ments.”

T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E 2

Professor bites into issue of animal rights

As part of the Road Scholars Lecture Series, USF professor Steven Tauber discussed law, politics and animal rights Wednesday night at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library. ORACLE PHOTO/ZACH LEETE

By Zach LeeteS T A F F W R I T E R

T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E 3

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Opinion4

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the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

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BY PHONE

Letter to the Editor

When I first heard about the Chapel Hill shooting, I was completely devastated. Deah Barakat, 23, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and Razan Abu-Salha, 19, were mur-dered in their homes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Tuesday afternoon. Throughout the night, I was checking my Twitter time-line and news outlets for more news about the vic-tims. At around midnight the murderer, Craig Hicks, turned himself in. Hicks had described himself as an anti-theist on his Facebook page, and was constantly posting about his hatred of

religion. I was shocked to see the lack of mainstream media coverage on the story. Here were murdered three young, active, intel-ligent, American students in an act of premeditated violence.

From Tamir Rice and Eric Garner to the more than 200,000 murdered civilians in Syria, I had more than learned about the double standard in media cover-age. But I refuse to let that happen in our school. I ask that we as a student body rise above these double standards. I ask that we honor the victims and the

roles they played in chari-ties such as United Muslim Relief.

I will keep this let-ter short in respect to the families and friends of the deceased.

I offer my deepest con-dolences to the Barakat and Abu-Salha families and pray that this time of hardship is made easier on them.

There will be a candlelight vigil to honor Deah, Yusor and Razan on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the MLK Plaza.

Dana Tarabishy is a senior majoring in biomedical sci-ences.

All lives matter

Letters to the Editor guidelines:

Letters should not exceed 400 words in length and must include name, major and year in school. They also must include phone number for verification purposes only.

All letters are subject to editing for content, grammar, taste and length. All letters are published at the discretion of the editorial board.

Only letters sent via email will be considered.

Submit letters to oracleopinion@gmail.com

In response to Wednesday’s shooting of three students near the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

What you said As Valentine’s Day approaches, Multimedia Editor Adam

Mathieu asked students what celebrity they would want to go on a date with for the occasion.

“Adam Levine, he seems like he’d be a cool person to go on a date with, like

he’d be very spontaneous.”

— Elisa Robbins, a junior majoring in biomedical

sciences

“Zooey Dechanel. She’s awesome and seems like a good person to go on a

date with, also she’s talented and pretty.”

— Shane Shackleford, a senior majoring in

chemical engineering

“Theo James, because he’s just so adorable.”

— Prachi Singh, a freshman

majoring in biology

“Scarlett Johansson because she’s very pretty

and seems like a nice lady, also she is my favorite

female actress.”

— Nathan Giang, a freshman majoring in

biomedical sciences

LifestyleU N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D A ● T H U R S D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E 5

Making Valentine’s Day unique this year

Valentine’s Day seems to have become less a celebration of love and more a celebration of bitter-ness accompanied by Ben & Jerry’s and a marathon of Hoarders. Instead of being content with soli-tude and having a pity party for one, find a designated Valentine’s Day date and spend the day together around campus and in the area. Here are some ways to make Valentine’s Day a little more enjoy-able, whether you are single or not.

The way to the heart is through the stomach

For the foodie in your life, there’s no better place to spend Valentine’s Day than in Tampa. Qdoba, located on Fowler and 56th, will be offering an interest-ing incentive this Valentine’s Day: If you purchase one sauce-covered burrito, and kiss someone in the restaurant, you will receive a free burrito. For dessert, head across the street to Felicitous Coffee Shop and order a “Make Believe.” For $5.50, you’ll get a warm waf-fle smothered in Nutella, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, freeze-dried strawberries, whipped cream and sprinkles all in a miniature mason jar. The Make Believe is sure to win over any date, and the calm and quaint nature of Felicitous will be sure to set a romantic tone for the day.

Take it outside

One of the best ways to spend the day is to head outdoors, wheth-er it be a picnic on the MLK

lawn or a trip to Riverfront Park, where USF students, faculty, staff and alumni can rent kayaks and canoes. For two hours and only $5 per watercraft, you and your date can explore the Hillsborough River and get some fresh air and sun tan in the process. For a more roman-tic setting, Riverfront Park will have moonlight canoeing Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 8:50 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 10:50 p.m. for only $5 per person.

If you’re looking for something outside with a little less nature, Fun Lan Drive-In Movie Theater, located on E. Hillsborough Ave, shows movies under the stars for only $7. Saturday night, take your date to see “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1” or the steamy and very V-Day appropriate “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Put the art in heart

A museum could be the perfect setting for any couple’s outing, but especially a first date — everyone likes art, or at least pretends to, and you can avoid awkward silence by pretending to be interested in the artwork. The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg offers free admis-sion to USF students, faculty and staff, and includes a hedge maze outside and is located right on the water, which makes for a nice afternoon walk setting.

A little less artsy, but a museum nonetheless, MOSI will be hosting “Mess Fest: Love Potions & Candy Chemistry,” an event aiming to uncover the science behind fall-ing in love, and has quirky activi-ties like creating color-changing flowers. The cost of attendance is $22.95 per adult and will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

By Brandon ShaikL I F E S T Y L E E D I T O R

Qdoba restaurants are offering participating couples the chance to receive a free burrito if they purchase one burrito smothered in sauce and kiss another person on Valentine’s Day. PHOTO TAKEN FROM QDOBA FACEBOOK

The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg offers free admission to USF students, faculty and staff and makes for a perfect romantic date. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E 6

awkward because I’m going to be like, ‘Yeah good hit,’ but then never mind, wrong team,” Gibson said. “It will be a lot of emotion just knowing the girls on the other team that I’ve played with and the coaches obviously.”

USF went 3-2 in its opening weekend, giving the coaching staff a glimpse of what they might see out of their pitching staff, which combined for a 2.12 ERA.

“They attacked the batters a

lot more. We got ahead and we challenged people last week-end, which was good,” assis-tant coach Monica Triner said.

The Bulls’ pitching staff has benefitted much from the play of former pitcher Sara Nevins, who dominated USF pitching for the last four years, but is now center stage to show that USF’s success wasn’t because of one player.

“They want to be that person coming in every game,” Triner said. “It kind of got overshad-owed when they didn’t get to pitch a lot (last season) and now they’re going to be able to

show what they can do.”On offense, Eriksen has built

this team with speed in mind. The Bulls were successful on 16 of 18 stolen-base attempts last weekend, creating extra scor-ing chances for the Bulls.

“We’ve gone out and recruit-ed and looked for kids who are very athletic and who can run,” Triner said. “It’s starting to show now and it’s putting defenses in hard positions.”

USF plays a double header Friday against St. John’s and Detroit, starting at 3:45 p.m. at the USF Softball Complex.

USFContinued from PAGE 12

points, three blocks and seven rebounds, including two offensive rebounds on the same possession as well as the foul that took fresh-man guard Dinero Mercurius out of the game.

“He’s a big boy,” Antigua said of the 6-foot-9, 255-pound for-ward. “They got him the ball a couple of times and he got some of our guys into foul trouble. He got some lobs because we were stepping up … we got out of

character.”USF was without their leading

scorer in Allen due to a rolled ankle that sent him to the bench for the remaining nine minutes of the first half. Allen would return to the game to start the second half, but by then, the Bulls had dug a nine-point hole.

The halftime deficit was pri-marily caused by a 14-point run by UCF during a 5:42 drought by USF.

“They got good production out of their bigs,” Antigua said. “The guards had been shooting the

ball really well and playing well all year. Then you get them at home and they start seeing the ball get in the basket in the first half, then you’re creating a bigger giant than you need to be dealing with.”

The Bulls would cut the lead to five just under three minutes into the second half, but before they could catch their breath, UCF had jumped out to a 20-point lead, this time for good.

“We competed in the second half, the first half we didn’t,” Allen said.

ORLANDOContinued from PAGE 12

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Classifieds Crossword To place a classified ad go to http://www.usforacle.com/classifieds

Walk-to-USF 2bedroom/2bath fur-nished condo. Two-students $425/

month each.(727)787-8753 (727)729-0069

Interested in working as a medical scribe in the Tampa Bay area? Go to

www.msaflorida.com/job-opportunities to apply today!

Animal Caretaker wanted for upscale boarding kennel located on Morris

Bridge Road in New Tampa. Job entails cleaning, exercising and supervising daycare for the animals

in our care. Some animal experience would be helpful but not necessary.

Download application under Contact Us at our website, thelodgefordogs.com.

You may bring the application with you as we ask you apply in person. The Lodge at New Tampa 15403 Morris

Bridge Road approx. 1/2 mile south of the Cross Creek/Morris Bridge Road

intersection in New Tampa.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Veterinary Tech/Assistant or Recep-tionist needed for animal hospital

close to campus. Part-time or full-time. Experience a plus, but will train. Email

resume to acahhiring@gmail.com.

HELP WANTED

Mural ArtistLooking for someone who can

create an “under the sea” mural on one textured wall 13’w x 10’h for baby nursery. Fee negotiable, paying cash. Need to start and finish ASAP...baby

is almost here! Email me your contact information, a breif introduction, and at-tach a sample of your work if possible.

shesdangerous@verizon.net

T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E 9

In the wake of an ongo-ing discrimination investiga-tion, the USF registrar has filed temporary restraining orders against the univer-sity’s Board of Trustees, the Office of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs and the Office of Student Success.

Last December, the woman in charge of students’ records on campus, Angela DeBose, who is black, in charge of the university’s records, accused Vice Provost Paul Dosal of dis-criminating against her.

Though the court denied her initial motion, DeBose is able to revise her motion by Feb. 13.

First reported by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, in her court documents filed earli-er this month to the Tampa

Division of the U.S. District Court, DeBose stated Dosal ostracized her and threatened to fire her on the basis of race and gender.

If issued by the court, a restraining order would pre-vent USF from firing or repri-manding DeBose.

According to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, DeBose declined to comment and Dosal has yet to comment.

“We are pleased that the court denied the order for fail-ure to state a case and for lack of jurisdiction,” USF spokes-man Adam Freeman said in a statement, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. “However, the university has not been served at this time.”

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is

reported to be investigating the discrimination allegations, but it is not within its power to restrain the university.

This not a first for USF to be accused of discrimination. Most allegations for employers as large as a university do not turn into a lawsuit.

In 2010, an academic adviser claimed USF fired her because of race, only to be rehired into a different posi-tion. In 2004, a Muslim stu-dent quit the women’s basket-ball team after claiming her coach objected to her heads-carf. In 2000, the university fired former women’s basket-ball coach for claims of racial discrimination.

— Staff report

prior to the official start of campaigning.

Many other grievances focus on Facebook posts that some feel violate SG statutes and campaign rules. One of these grievances has been filed against Sammy Hamed’s cam-paign for student body presi-dent.

Though no violations have been assessed to either presi-dential ticket by the Election Rules Committee (ERC), five minor violations have been assessed among two candi-dates for senator. If any candi-

date receives seven minor vio-lations or one major violation, he or she will be disqualified from the election.

Currently, eight of the griev-ances have been filed by SG Attorney General Alexander Johnson.

Eight of the pending griev-ances will be discussed by the ERC today at 11 a.m. in the conference room of the SG suite on the fourth floor of the Marshall Student Center.

“If you’re going to run, you should know the rules,” said SG Supervisor of Elections John Quiroz. “It’s my job to inform candidates, but in the end it’s there job to read (election poli-cies and campaign rules).”

GRIEVANCESContinued from PAGE 1Registrar seeks restraining order in

midst of USF discrimination accusation

Johnson said.When a student first gets a

ticket they can appeal to Parking and Transportation Services, run by the university’s admin-istration. The most convenient option is to log in to usf.edu/parking and submit a written description of why he or she feels the ticket was unjustified.

From there, the office will either overturn the citation or decide to uphold it. In some cases, the fine might be reduced.

If the student still feels the cita-tion is unjust, the next step is to appeal to Student Government’s Supreme Court.

The court sets a date for the student to come in and com-plete a written or oral appeal. Students can also log in to the Student Government website to message Christopher about the circumstances of the citation and ask if he would be able to help them with it.

Of all the thousands of parking citations given out every semes-ter, around 100 students will go through the appeal process in front of the Supreme Court. Out of those appeals, Christopher said around 20 appeals are often overturned or the fine will be reduced.

“There are rules out there, but we are doing our best to make them clear to students,” Christopher said.

At Parking and Transportation Services, Johnson and Christopher work as partners to inform students of the correct parking rules, and if those rules are not clear, then they work

together to make the rules clear-er for students.

The appeal process works like a checks and balance sys-tem. If the definition of the rule was unclear, then Christopher can argue that and get the fine reduced for students. But if the rule is clear, then Christopher works to help the student under-stand why he or she received that citation.

“Both sides understand the system and both sides appre-ciate the system,” Christopher said.

Last semester, Christopher helped four students get a reduced fine after coming to him for a consult and representing them in court.

Besides helping students with parking citations, the duo is also bringing in legal aid to help stu-dents with any outside incidents they may need legal advice on.

The back of the flier gives the information about local lawyers coming to campus Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for 15-minute consultations with students in need of advice.

“I think that it --is better for students to know that they can come to a fellow student and try to get their problems resolved,” Johnson said.

The fliers will continue to be passed around, Johnson said, for as long as students have a need for legal help.

“We all know college students most likely don’t work a job that pays a lot of money, we most likely work a job like Burger King and places like that,” Johnson said. “The general college stu-dent most likely cannot afford to just go out and hire two hours worth of an attorney.”

PARKINGContinued from PAGE 1

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Conference team after leading the Bulls with a .354 batting average and .476 on-base percentage. The senior also recorded seven dou-bles, 22 RBIs and 41 runs during his junior season.

“From a hitting standpoint, the ball does jump a little bit,” Teaf said. “From a defensive stand-point, it bounces the same, it rolls the same. There’s not much differ-ence that I can notice in the field.”

USF Baseball Stadium mea-sures 325 feet down the left-field line, 330 feet down the right-field line and 400 feet to straightaway center. Despite having a large ballpark, new head coach Mark Kingston said he thinks USF will improve its power production.

“We have a big ballpark here,” Kingston said. “There may be times where we hit three doubles that could have been three hom-ers in a lot of ballparks, but I do think we will hit more homers this year. We have guys that I think are

ready to take the next step, and now it’s time for them to prove me right.”

USF recorded 68 doubles and 13 triples, but only nine homers last season. Comparably, UCF led the conference with 36 homers.

USF, which ranked fifth in the conference last season with a 27-31 record, is projected to finish fifth in the eight-team AAC this season.

The Bulls open their season this weekend at Bright House Field in Clearwater, where they will face No. 18 Cal State Fullerton, Louisville and Alabama State. They play their first game against the Titans on Friday at 7 p.m.

“I think our pitching and defense is where we’ll start every game,” Kingston said. “That’s what’s going to give us a chance to win. But I think how good our offense is and how much it has developed over the past year will determine how far we can go ... If our offense catches up to our pitching and defense, we’ll have a chance.”

Casey Mulholland, who pitched 88 2/3 innings last season, said he is in favor of the new baseballs. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

OFFENSEContinued from PAGE 12

T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E 11

From one brother to another

Brooks Koepka is a big, power-ful golfer with PGA and European Tour wins at the highest level of golf. His brother, USF junior Chase Koepka, relies on his accu-racy and strategy to work his way up to the professional level.

Two different golfers, but one consistent goal: be the best.

“He has the best work ethic of anyone on the team and players see that,” coach Steven Bradley said. “When your best player is also your hardest worker, it speaks volumes for your team.”

Chase has risen to the num-ber one spot on the USF team and continues to progress, hav-ing become the first golfer in USF history to average shoot-ing under par for the season in 2013-14.

On the pro circuit, Brooks continues to rise in the ranks, as he secured his first PGA Tour win of his career Feb. 1, shooting 15-under at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. His success carries over into his little brother’s game.

“He’s been a big help with my game and pretty much just pick-ing his brain, learning from him, because in my opinion, he’s one of the best players in the world right now,” Chase said. “Being able to be at home and practice with him and play with him and his friends, it’s a big advantage for me.

“Just to know that I can play alongside him and he’s out win-ning on the European Tour, win-ning on the PGA Tour, it gives me confidence.”

Chase knows the advantage he has with his brother and doesn’t mind that he has to spend some time lurking in his shadow.

“I know he’s going to be very good for me once I turn pro,” Chase said. “He can help me go the right direction, whether it’s going to Europe or staying here. I get compared to him all the time, but I don’t mind it. He’s done so

well in every stage he’s played in whether it’s junior am, collegiate or now pro. Since he’s done so well for himself, I don’t mind it at all.”

Coming out of the short off-season, Chase now sets his sights on bouncing back from a disap-pointing fall finish.

“We didn’t finish off the fall exactly how we would’ve liked,” Chase said. “We had some tough competition in our last two events that really tested us, but we also had some difficult weather that we weren’t used to playing in.”

After winning its first tourna-ment and finishing second in the following tournament, USF fin-ished fifth out of 11 at Erin Hills and sixth out of 10 at Gifford Collegiate.

“We had a couple mediocre finishes and I think we’re a bet-ter team than that,” sophomore Rigel Fernandes said. “I don’t want to say we got complacent, but there were things we could’ve done that we were doing in the first two tournaments. We just have to get back to working hard and doing the little things for the spring season.”

A bright spot for USF in the fall was the emergence of freshman Claudio Correa, who has contrib-uted early for coach Bradley and the Bulls.

“Claudio has been a real pleas-ant surprise,” Bradley said. “For him to come in and play the way he’s played and solidify himself not only in the top five (on the team), but probably one of our top three players, it’s been big for us.”

The Bulls head to Gainesville this weekend for the Gator Invitational, but also have tour-naments in Los Cabos, Mexico, Tallahassee and North Carolina before returning home for the AAC championship as well as the NCAA’s in May.

The Bulls are ready to erase last year’s disappointing postsea-son finish and make a run at a conference and national cham-pionship.

“That was the lowest feeling you could have,” Fernandes said in regards to the team’s 14th place finish in the AAC champi-onship. “You never want to feel that again.”

Men’s Golf

n USF golfer Chase Koepka uses his brother’s influence to propel his career.By Jacob HoagA S S T . S P O R T S E D I T O R

SportsU N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D A ● T H U R S D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 ● T H E O R AC L E12

USF grad assistant to face former team New balls could aid Bulls’ offense

Hostile Orlando too much for Bulls

In 2010, it was Lauren Gibson’s freshman year and the Tennessee Volunteers made the journey to the Women’s College World Series with nine freshmen on the roster.

“Even though we made it far-ther my senior year, my fresh-man year was just an amazing experience,” Gibson said. “We weren’t really expected to make it there, with nine freshmen. It was a really young team, so, just being able to make it there as an unexpected team, it was a great experience.”

Tennessee, needing just one win to clinch a spot in the finals, fell 5-2 to Arizona, end-ing its run.

Gibson finished her career with 245 hits, 46 homers and 216 RBIs in 242 career starts.

While playing for the Volunteers, Gibson was selected to play for Team USA from 2011-13, where she was coached by USF coach Ken Eriksen.

Gibson used her connection with Eriksen from their days with Team USA to become a graduate assistant with the Bulls.

“Being such a young class my freshmen year, I’m able to come here and help the fresh-men get comfortable playing college ball, because playing in high school is so different than playing high school or summer ball,” Gibson said.

Gibson said she’ll be in a tough spot this weekend as the Bulls take on No. 13 Tennessee on Saturday during the Presidents Day Weekend Tournament hosted by USF.

“It’s just going to be really

The Bulls knocked out just nine homers last season. This season, more might make it out of the ballpark with the introduction of flat-seam baseballs.

These new balls, which are expected to boost offense across Division I baseball, could travel up to 20 feet farther than the previous raised-seam baseballs, according to ESPN.com.

The seams have been flattened from .048 inches to .031 inches, which is still higher than what is used in Major League Baseball, according to NCAA.com.

The lower-seamed baseballs are similar to the ones used in the minor leagues, which is why USF senior pitcher Casey Mulholland said he’s excited for the change.

“I actually like (the new base-balls) better,” said the right-hand-er, who finished last season with a 3.65 ERA in 88 2/3 innings.

“The ball spins a little tighter,” Mulholland said. “From a pitching perspective, it just feels right. It’s an easier transition to the next level for a lot of us, and guys I’ve talked to say they wish they hadn’t used the big laces in col-lege.”

USF relied heavily on its pitch-ing last season. During the sum-mer, Mulholland and junior Jimmy Herget pitched in the Cape Cod League, where lower-seamed baseballs were used, according to The New York Times.

Herget was named the AAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year after finishing his sophomore season with a 1.26 ERA in a career-high 107 1/3 innings. The right-hander struck out 90 batters and tossed two complete games.

Shortstop Kyle Teaf also land-ed a spot on the Preseason All-

The deafening voices of 6,201 UCF fans chanting “good Orlando, bad Orlando,” “flop-per” and “you’re not Demarcus,” pounded through CTE Arena on Wednesday night and the Bulls could do little to quiet the rival crowd.

The black and gold “No Bull Tonight” T-shirts distributed to fans at the arena accurately encapsulated the evening as the Bulls dropped their 10th consecu-tive game 73-62 against in-state rival UCF.

“I know a lot of the fresh-men on our team haven’t been through this before, so it was kind of crazy for them to see the fans like this,” senior guard Corey Allen Jr. said.

UCF was no defending cham-

pion UConn or conference-lead-ing Tulsa. The Knights were on their own six-game losing streak — the team sat four games below .500 entering the game and rank third to last in the conference.

“We came in here really push-ing to win and we didn’t get it,” Allen said. “We took a lot of steps back tonight, but it’s all about how we respond.”

The Bulls continued their three-point woes that have plagued their season going 4-21 (.019) from beyond the arc.

“I encourage them to keep attacking and taking good shots,” coach Orlando Antigua said. “Wherever that comes from, it’s hard to determine. We’ll go back to the tape and determine which ones were good so we can teach them and show them.”

UCF’s Staphon Blair seem to own the paint, putting up 14

Softball

Men’s Basketball

By Jacob HoagA S S T . S P O R T S E D I T O R

By Jacob HoagA S S T . S P O R T S E D I T O R

Baseball

By Tiana AumentC O R R E S P O N D E N T

Lauren Gibson played college softball for Tennessee and Team USA, but is now a graduate assistant with USF. PHOTO BY ANDREW BRUCKSE/TENNESSEE ATHLETICS

Senior guard Corey Allen Jr. missed nine minutes of the first half with a rolled ankle. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

n See USF on PAGE 6

n See OFFENSE on PAGE 10n See ORLANDO on PAGE 6