The season doesn’t officially start for another week, but it’s fair to say that the University of Tampa men’s basketball team has already faced its share of trials and tribulations.
With five players graduating in 2011 and another ineligible to play this season, Coach Richard Schmidt knew that recruiting the right players was essential.
Rashad Callaway and Anthony Griffis were responsible for almost 75 percent of the points last season, averaging 19.1 and 15.8 points per game respectively.
Recruitment started off smoothly when freshman Jon Riles signed a National Letter of Intent. The 6-foot-2 point guard averaged 10 points and six assists per game while attending high school at the Academy of the New Church.
Rounding out the freshmen class is 5-foot-10 point guard Terrell Pritchett and 6-foot-8 Jason Brown. Of the freshmen, Schmidt said, “Both our point guards are freshmen. They better add a whole lot if we’re going to be good this year. Jason is a talented shot blocker.”
Additionally contributing to the team is 6-foot-6 senior Brian Wright. Wright transferred from the University of South Florida, but did not play for the Bulls last season.
However, since the Spartans lost six men last year, Schmidt recruited two other exciting students: a 6-foot-8 junior college transfer and a 7-foot-2 transfer from Mississippi State University. Due to the fact that the junior college was unaccredited, the Spartan hopeful was unable to attend UT.
In addition, the MSU transfer only had one year of eligibility left for the NCAA, so he decided to instead go to an NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) school where he would have two years of eligibility.
Despite losing these two recruits, Schmidt is confident in his team. “We have a lot of guys who are even in talent,” said Schmidt. “If someone is injured or in foul trouble, we can take him out and replace him with someone just as good.”
Schmidt is not only asking the new players to step up, but he is also expecting the same of his returning players. With only junior Callum Townsend and senior Ashton Graham returning from the starting line-up, they have a lot of pressure on their shoulders. Townsend had 8.7 points per game last year, and Graham had 8.4.
Schmidt believes that Graham, a guard, is the player to watch out for as he has improved tremendously in his two years as a Spartan.
Graham feels the same way. “I see this season as a personal opportunity to step up and emerge as a leader,” said Graham.
Recently, the Sunshine State Conference preseason poll was released with UT ranking a dismal eighth of nine teams.
Rollins College was ranked first with high expectations of winning its third consecutive SSC Men’s Basketball Championship. Eckerd College and UT rival Florida Southern College rounded out the top three teams.
Although the Spartans closed their record breaking 2010-2011 season (they won their first 16 games) ranked No. 4 in the conference, Schmidt was not surprised by the drop at the beginning of this season.
“We lost everyone who played a lot,” Schmidt said. “We lost our two biggest scorers and there’s so many good teams in our conference.”
Even with everything seemingly going against the Spartans, they still have hope for the season. “There’s no clear cut best team,” said senior Osby Kelly. “Anyone can win the conference.”
Graham feels optimistic. “We have potential,” said Graham. “Even though we’re a young team, we can see that things are coming together.”
Of course, there are things that the team still needs to work on. While both Schmidt and Graham believe that the team’s biggest weakness is its transition from offense to defense, Kelly doesn’t question the teams’ quickness.
“We have the quickness, we just need to utilize it better,” he said.
Although Graham and Kelly hope fans support the team every game, the two had opposing opinions as to which would be the “can’t miss” game of the season.
Kelly believes that the game against Eckerd hosted in the Martinez Center on Feb. 15 is the one to be at, as it is always a close game. Last season, UT beat the Tritons by seven points and then lost to them by five.
Graham has a personal reason in choosing Florida Southern as his most looked-forward to game. “Since I’ve been at UT, we haven’t beaten them,” he said. “It’s our turn to win.”
In fact, the Spartans haven’t beaten the Moccasins since the 2007-2008 season, and it was the Mocs who handed UT their first loss of the season last year. That matchup will take place at home on Jan. 18.
As for right now, the team’s main focus is winning its first game of the season against NAIA school Southeastern University. The game is set for Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Martinez.
Analisa Trstensky can be reached at atrstensky@spartans.ut.edu.