On paper, the University of Tampa men’s basketball team had a great year. They went 22-7, and won their quarterfinal game in the Sunshine State Conference tournament before losing to regular season champion Rollins in the Semifinals. To say the Spartans exceeded expectations would be an understatement.
But a season that showed so much potential after a school record 16-0 start, ended without an invitation to the NCAA Division II tournament.
Guard Rashad Callaway, a senior, has been the face of UT basketball for the past four seasons. He’s garnered numerous awards throughout his career. Most recently he was selected to the first team All-South Region, and also to the SSC All-Tournament team for his play this season. After an 11-16 season last year, Callaway said he’s enjoyed UT rebounding to a winning record, but that they didn’t achieve every goal he had in mind.
“It’s definitely heart-breaking, knowing that I wasn’t able to bring the team to the tournament my senior year.” Callaway said, “We went 22-7. Onlookers, if they saw that record, they’d say ‘oh, they had a good year.’”
“But not making the tournament, I have no words for that.”
According to Callaway, the hot start ended up attributing to their downfall at the end. He said the entire team got complacent and began to falter mentally. It showed on the stat sheet.
A team that seemed to play shut down defense the first two months, began giving up 70 points regularly.
But UT fought hard at the end. They showed glimpses of their early season form in consecutive wins over SSC rival Florida Tech to close the season and begin the SSC tournament. They pushed a very talented Rollins team to the brink of elimination, coming back from a 15-point deficit to lead 62-57 with five minutes remaining.
But this season, the story was about not finishing. Rollins stormed back with 10 unanswered points to close out the game and win, 67-62. Had UT won, and advanced to the SSC final, they would’ve had the opportunity to get Coach Richard Schmidt’s 600th career win. But as it stands now, Coach Schmidt will enter the 2011 season with 598 victories.
There is an unsteady feeling about next season for the Spartan men. They’re losing five seniors, including three regular starters. Glyn Hunter (6’6”) and Fred Woods (6’7”) made up UT’s post presence this season, but neither will be returning in the fall.
Woods said he’s not too worried about size for next year though, and that he’s got some big hopes for some of the younger tall men.
“I expect to see things from [Stefon] Barfield and Corey Pelot,” Woods said, “They’ve shown some glimpses of some good stuff they can do and hopefully they can bring it to the table next year.”
Guard Anthony Griffis says that if Pelot and Barfield combine, then they can equal the kind of presence that Woods brings. He laughs as he says it, and it’s not a knock on the two players who have shown great potential. Rather, it’s a compliment to Woods who blocked a team high 48 shots and compiled six double-doubles this year.
Griffis, a junior and the second leading scorer on the team behind Callaway, is going to be expected to lead the team next season. As a transfer, it’s going to be only his second season in a UT uniform, but he’s already shown that he can dominate a game.
Despite the SSC tournament loss to Rollins, Griffis showed the kind of impact player he can be in a pressure packed environment. He scored a team high 23 points on 10 for 14 shooting, while also grabbing a team high eight rebounds. If there’s a candidate for stardom on this team next year, it’s Anthony Griffis.
The men’s basketball team had an extremely emotional season. After their school record 16 straight wins, they lost seven of 13 to end up 4th in the SSC and without the tournament opportunity they had been striving for all year. But in no way can this season be considered a failure.
The Spartans were ranked 7th in the SSC Preseason Poll, barely ahead of Barry and St. Leo who both finished with losing records. UT won 22 games and got students at UT to care about basketball again; over 1100 people showed up for their January game against Florida Southern.
With a strong recruiting class, you can expect the team to be in the thick of the SSC next year, looking for the tournament bid that’s eluded them since the ‘07-‘08 season.
The ‘10-‘11 basketball season shouldn’t be remembered by the early ending, but by the unbelievable beginning.
“I’m happy with how the season went. It’s the first time we had a season with less than 10 losses in a while, and it felt good to start 16-0,” Fred Woods said, “It’s something I’ll tell my kids if I have them.”
“I just wish it could’ve been a little longer.”
Miles Parks can be reached at mparks@spartans.ut.edu.