Howard out for year with ACL tear
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 10, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TAMPA - Freshman point guard Chris Howard, expected to lead USF into the Big East, is lost for the season after tearing a ligament in his left knee during practice Tuesday.

"It's devastating for our team to lose a player with his level of skill and talent," said coach Robert McCullum, whose team opens play at 7 tonight with an exhibition against Saint Leo. "He had already established himself as a leader on the floor because of his presence, and that is saying a lot when upperclassmen are looking to him for leadership."

Howard will have surgery to replace a torn anterior cruciate ligament and will redshirt this season. He is the third scholarship guard the Bulls have lost since September, after junior Marius Prekevicius left to play professionally in Europe and junior David Sills was dismissed from the team last week. His loss leaves the Bulls without a true point guard on scholarship, and McCullum said sophomore Collin Dennis, a shooting guard, will take over at the point, along with walk-on Chris Capko, last year's backup.

"All things considered, the players have handled it extremely well," said McCullum, whose players attended a campus memorial service Wednesday for former Bulls guard Bradley Mosley, who died Oct.29 at age 22 after a yearlong battle with kidney cancer.

McCullum also has two scholarships to use on a player who could join the team after the semester break in December, in time for USF's Big East opener against West Virginia on Jan.5. The Bulls signed their first recruit for the 2006-07 season Wednesday in Kissimmee Poinciana's Princeton "Dante" Curry, a 6-foot-4 combo guard.