Dec. 29, 2011
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By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF opens its Holiday Tournament against long-time rival Stetson on Thursday, but Friday is actually the day that the Knights have been pointing to for a couple of months now.
That's the day when a UCF squad that entered this season with lofty expectations and enormous potential will finally be whole again. Fiery point guard A.J. Rompza returns to the squad on Friday, and UCF (8-3) will finally have its full complement of weapons to unleash on opponents.
Surely, there are still some unknowns as to just how good this Knights team can be, but having a full complement of players available should provide a clearer picture. Despite having to juggle rotations because of a fluid roster, UCF has already defeated defending national champion UConn, College of Charleston and Old Dominion - all postseason teams from a year ago - and the feeling is that the Knights can be even better with their full squad available.
``We've been playing all summer with certain lineups and rotations, but a lot of the stuff that we went through as a team knocked all of that out of whack. Now, everybody is back and it's like we're finally raring up and ready to go,'' UCF small forward Tristan Spurlock said. ``At this point, nobody knows how good we can be; we don't know, other teams don't know. They can speculate, but nobody knows because we haven't all been together. But we think we can be pretty good and now's our chance to show that.''
The Knights face Stetson (4-6) at 7 p.m. in the first game of the UCF Holiday Classic on Thursday. The winner of that game will face the winner of James Madison/Rhode Island on Friday. Off a week for Christmas, the Knights are hoping to rebound from a road loss to Louisiana-Lafayette and ramp up for Conference USA play, which begins Jan. 4 at home against Tulane.
``We're not where we need to be chemistry-wise, but considering what we've been through we've made some strides,'' UCF coach Donnie Jones. ``The good news is that we haven't peaked. I felt like we peaked this time last year and we were playing at about as high a level as we could and there was only one way to go. But now by no means have we played as good a basketball as we can play.''
No one is more excited about getting the full squad back together than Jones, who has had to adjust lineups and rotations because the Knights have been without Marcus Jordan, P.J. Gaynor, Josh Crittle and Rompza at various times during the season.
But being shorthanded at times could benefit the Knights in the long run. Small forward Isaiah Sykes had to shift to point guard at times, while Spurlock has had to shift between three slots and Marcus Jordan has shouldered more ball-handling duties.
``All summer long and in the fall we prepared to play a lot of different schemes and obviously we got turned upside down a little bit with what we've had to go through. It will be good for our team getting back whole,'' Jones said. ``But I really do believe that a lot of great teams are built through adversity and I think our team experienced it early and it forced us to battle through some things. We've had some good wins, and because have had to play in different spots and in different roles I think it will create some depth for us.''
Jones equated the loss of Rompza to a football team being without its starting point guard. Rompza, who will play off the bench in Friday's game, is unquestionably one of UCF's emotional leaders because of the effort he plays with and his fiery nature. Not only will his return give UCF another weapon, but it will also have a positive trickledown effect on the squad, Jones said.
``It's like taking a quarterback off the team and hopefully our team will have a different appreciation for A.J since he's been gone,'' Jones said. ``It allows us to take Marcus off the ball and give him the ability to have freedom to run and score more. A.J. will get guys the ball, get us in our sets and control the tempo. He's played a lot of minutes and he's another shooter there who can make shots for us.''
John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.