It's not that South Florida coach Stan Heath didn't think the Bulls would make strides this season.

But even he didn't see this coming.

I'm talking about the four-game winning streak that began with a crazy overtime win at Providence in which the Bulls were down nine points with less than 45 seconds remaining in regulation.

"That lit the match," Heath said.

The fire has been burning since.

Then came another overtime win, this time at home against Seton Hall. A victory over a ranked Pittsburgh team followed, but the one that may put the Bulls in the equation for an NCAA tournament bid was last night's road win at Georgetown.

The craziest part of it is that it's all been done without South Florida's top inside threat, Gus Gilchrist (18.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg), who has been out since mid-January with a severely sprained ankle.

Heath said that Gilchrist could be cleared to practice tomorrow, and there's a chance he could play Sunday against Notre Dame, which now becomes a big game for the Bulls, although a more realistic return date is Feb. 13 at Marquette.

However, it's hard to imagine anyone in the Big East – no knock on Wesley Johnson, Luke Harangody, or Scottie Reynolds – performing at a higher level that Dominique Jones over the last month or so.

Jones is averaging 29.4 points per game since we rang in 2010, and more importantly, the Bulls are now .500 in Big East play and 15-7 overall.

The résumé now includes wins over a pair of Top 25 teams and one bad loss – a setback to Central Michigan two days after losing Gilchrist. Other than that, it's been road losses to Syracuse, Louisville and Cincinnati and home losses to West Virginia and Notre Dame. The Bulls also lost to South Carolina down in Charleston in the fourth game of the season – back when Darrin Horn had a healthy Dominique Archie.

"We've got to play for it," Heath said about the potential of dancing in March. "It's there, but we've also got to be careful because things can change so fast."

Take Pittsburgh, for example.

The Panthers were flying high and were 15-2 two weeks ago following their eighth consecutive win – a stretch that included road victories against Syracuse, Cincinnati and UConn.

Now, Jamie Dixon's club has lost four of its last five.

RANDOM NOTES: Memphis forward Angel Garcia was cleared to play, but Tigers coach Josh Pastner didn't play the skilled redshirt freshman last night in a win against UAB.

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