April 11, 2011
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By Doug Richards
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - After he led his team through an individual workout session late last week, UCF head coach Donnie Jones could not help but think about a year ago. In April 2010, Jones had just taken over the helm of the program when he worked with his new squad on the court for the first time.
The transition was not an easy one for the Knights. At this point a year ago, Jones was starting to instill portions of his up-tempo, pro-style offense.
Understandably, members of the team were not so sharp during individual workout sessions.
Last week, Jones was impressed with his player's skill levels, and marveled when thinking about where his team was at this time last year.
"It is amazing how far advanced they are, and how much they know already," he said. "There is so much we can build on, where we had to take so much time to teach a year ago. Our guys really know the level and speed we need to work on. Now we've really got to make strides with some strength issues. We can really focus on those, along with increasing our skill level."
UCF will have individual workout sessions a few times each week for the next two weeks. Jones' goals for the workouts are simple.
"Our goal is to really improve skill. When we do individual workouts, we really focus on skills. It is mostly offensive skills. We are trying to improve guy's shots, ball handling and scoring ability. We do things that really fit our system."