Three months ago, Central Florida's basketball program was living a dream.
The Knights were off to a school-record 14-0 start as a member of Division I and were soaking up the national buzz that came along with their first-ever national ranking.
But it all nearly unraveled when an eight-game losing streak in January and February folowed.
Now, the Knights - winners of five of their last seven games - open Wednesday's Conference USA tournament in El Paso, Texas just hoping to recapture some of their early season magic.
UCF (19-10, 6-10 C-USA) is the No. 9 seed and opens the tournament against No. 8 East Carolina (16-14, 8-8), who it's lost to twice this season. The winner gets top seed UAB on Thursday.
''We got hit in the head a little bit for a while, but we're still here with a chance to do something,'' said sophomore Marcus Jordan, second-born son of NBA legend Michael Jordan, who leads the Knights in scoring averaging 15.9 points per game.
After a modest freshman season, Jordan's namesake showed fast improvement on the court this season to easily become the face of the Knights' start. They reached as high as No. 19 in the Associated Press Top 25.
The run included a win over in-state rival Florida - currently ranked No. 12 - and an increase in home attendance numbers, going from an average of 5,411 in 2009-10 to 6,714 this season.
But the start of conference play brought injuries to starting junior point guard A.J. Rompza and sophomore forward Dave Diakite. Rompza has been bothered since the midseason by stress fractures in both feet and Diakite's season ended Jan. 31 when he had knee surgery.
Those gaps in the lineup quickly produced sagging play, as the team went from averaging 76.2 points during its 14-game win streak to just 63.1 in its eight consecutive losses.
''We played good basketball throughout the year, especially early,'' Knights coach Donnie Jones said. ''We're much better than where we were the beginning of the year, which is where you want to be at the end of the year. I think our guys' confidence has gotten better. They know we can compete and play.''
Rompza missed a pair of games because of his injuries and still hasn't been able to return to the starting lineup. That hasn't prevented him from making his presence felt, though. UCF recently knocked off UTEP and Southern Mississippi - both leading the league at the time - in back-to-back games.
During the Knights' last seven games, teams are averaging just 61.5 points per game against them.
Rompza was instrumental in both victories and hit the game-winner in the closing seconds against Southern Miss. Jordan and sophomore Keith Clanton (averaging 13.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game) also have remained solid and were named to the C-USA second- and third-teams respectively.
Rompza's voice, coupled with better defense and continued consistency from Jordan and Clanton now have the Knights' confidence soaring again for the first time in months.
''We've just fighting, I think, because we know we're a great team,'' Rompza said. ''We know how we started the season off and that we can compete with the best when we play together and we fight. In those games that we lost, after a few possessions we'd put our heads down and it'd go down for us.
''But lately when a team scores, or we don't get a stop, we continue to fight until we get what we want.''
Jones said there haven't been many tweaks
''We just continued to focus on getting better and it makes it really simple,'' he said. ''...Most of the games were close, we were right there. A shot here and a shot there and it's a different outcome.''
UCF must win the C-USA title this week to reach the NCAA tournament, but if they can get one or two wins then the NIT is a definite possibility. The Knights are currently No. 59 in the RPI and have a 7-6 record against teams in RPI's top 100. UCF also has played the 47th toughest schedule in the country, according to CBSSports.com.
''We definitely have a higher level of confidence right now,'' Jordan said. ''I think going through that eight-game losing streak - everybody just kind of got shaky. But I think we got back on the right track and have just been grinding it out. Now we're playing the best basketball that we have all year.''
Jones said looking backward at what could have been is pointless now and that that finishing this season strong is the only focus now.
''You talk about what you're playing for every game now,'' Jones said. ''... If you can't' win your (conference) tournament, then obviously it's still about postseason play, especially when you're rebuilding a program. It's what you do when you're young...We need any postseason play we can get and I think it's great for this program ... We're excited.''
