GORHAM — No one buried a basketball or set fire to a printout of a schedule that listed last season’s awful results. Karl Henrikson saw little use for the symbolism. He wanted reality to serve as a reminder.

The University of Southern men’s basketball team takes a 7-4 record into tonight’s game with Husson. Losses to Keene State and Catholic University were by one and two points.

If you haven’t been paying attention, the seven victories are already five more than all of last season when the Huskies lost all 14 games against Little East opponents and were 2-23 overall.

Injuries decimated the roster during first semester. Personal issues, including money woes, had friends of the program scouring campus intramural teams looking for help.

“Why are you talking about last year?” asked Otis Smith when I walked into Hill Gymnasium after Tuesday’s practice. He was either playfully annoyed or seriously irritated. “This is a new season, a new group of guys and we’re winning. Last year is gone.”

Easy, big guy. A peek back at the past can help explain the present and maybe the future. If USM takes care of business through January and deep into Feburary, it could be in business when the NCAA Division III playoffs roll around.

Smith grew up near Orlando, Fla., in Altamonte. He came to Maine to live with his uncle, Wil Smith, the Seeds of Peace camp director and former McAuley High girls’ basketball coach. Henrikson penciled his name into the starting lineup at the start of the season and at the end.

That made Smith one of the very few constants, although when the season finally ended with a 23-point loss to Eastern Connecticut State, he might have felt he had just starred in a bizarre “Survivor.”

He’s a senior this year and even more motivated. He dropped maybe 20 pounds and looks leaner.

“I’m a little quicker,” he said.

If Smith felt outmanned at times last season, Mike Poulin felt something else. He broke his wrist during a preseason game and never played again in 2009-10.

“I was a captain, so my job was to look for the positives. If someone came back to the bench with low self-esteem, I needed to pick him up,” he said.

A Readfield native and Maranacook graduate, Poulin plays point guard. That he was named a captain in his sophomore season spoke to a leadership role that was tested again and again.

“It was hard,” he admitted. “We hung in a lot of games last year. But losing is losing. It never feels good.”

Winning does, although Henrikson says teams with losing records can be misjudged.

“I’ve had winning teams with gaudy records but sometimes the commitment wasn’t there. As much as we lost last year, they gave me their commitment,” he said.

It sounds trite, but that’s all Henrikson wanted once the roster situation became dire. During first semester last year, USM had Cortese Isaac’s wonderous shooting skills to keep it in games. When financial issues made him ineligible for second semester, it was hard for what was left of the team to take the court believing they could win. Still, they played hard.

Isaac is back and averaging better than 20 points a game, although he still looks for a teammate to score. Poulin is cheering on his teammates from the court, not the bench.

Smith, at 6-foot-3, has more help in the front court, especially from Sean Bergeron of Kennebunk, who was one of the injured. Transfers Devin Chambers and Chris Pagentine, both guards, have had an impact.

Actually, Henrikson can look up and down his bench and beckon to anyone and expect a contribution.

“Practice is a lot more competitive,” said Smith. Henrikson is stressing defense and his players are listening.

Smith laughed. “We have the swagger. We have the confidence.”

Sunday against Catholic University in Washington, USM trailed by 17 but rallied to within one before losing, 79-77.

The basketball coach in Henrikson likes his team’s single-minded focus. The English major in him quotes the first stanza of a short Emily Dickinson poem to explain:

“Success is counted sweetest

those who ne’er succeed

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.”

Poulin, Smith and their teammates don’t have to sit in American literature class to understand.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at: ssolloway@pressherald.com