Last season the UCF men’s basketball team got off to a 14-0 start, which was the best start in school history. When they got into Conference USA play, they lost eight straight games, and finished the season 21-12 overall.
Coach Donnie Jones and the returning players still remember the late struggles from last season, but they won’t dwell on them coming into the new season. They will be looking to learn from their mistakes and make sure that they finish the season strong.
“There were a lot of lessons to learn through that loss, and there were a lot of reasons for that,” Jones said when asked about the late struggles from last season. “Hopefully, the guys that have been a part of that understand that, but I’ve moved past it. I don’t live in the past; I live in today, and I think these guys have grown from that.”
Notable wins from last season for UCF came against No. 18 Florida, Miami (FL), Southern Mississippi and UTEP. By the end of 2010, UCF was ranked as high as No. 19 in the AP Poll.
The Knights’ first loss of the season came at Houston on January 8. From that point on, the Knights lost 12 of their final 19 games to end the season. All but one of those losses came from C-USA opponents.
Senior guard A.J. Rompza, who enters the season fourth in program history with 394 career assists, remembers the tough end to last season very well.
“We didn’t finish the way we wanted to, but we’ve moved on,” Rompza said. “We started out great, then had rough points. As a leader, I’m gonna let that go and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Rompza learned a lot from last season and insists that he will be more of a leader this season.
“It’s my last year, and I’m gonna make sure that I get the best out of every single teammate. Whether that’s yelling at them in practice or being on them constantly. At the end of the day, it’s about winning.”
Junior forward Keith Clanton, who is a native of Orlando, was recently selected to the Preseason All-C-USA First team. During the 2010-2011 season, Clanton averaged 14.2 points per game and a team-high 7.7 rebounds per game. He also shot 52.9 percent from the floor, which ranked third in the conference.
Clanton also learned a valuable lesson from last season.
“I feel like the biggest lesson I took was that we had the highest highs and the lowest lows, so I feel like you always have to play with confidence at all times,” Clanton said.
The Knights started out hot last season, but ran out of gas towards the end of the season. A good start is necessary, but more focus will be placed on consistent play throughout the season.
“Nobody wants to come in the first couple of games losing, so I feel like if we get off to a good start, and we just keep our composure, then we can do it throughout the whole season.”
The Knights only have six players returning from last season, but Jones is excited to start the season with a new team.
“This is a completely different team from last year with what we can do and we’ve gotten better, and I think we’ve improved,” Jones said.
The Knights will start preseason play in Orlando as they take on West Virginia Tech on November 5. Their first regular season game will be a week later on November 12 against St. Thomas University in Orlando.
