Antonio Graves was smiling from ear to ear outside the locker room Jan. 8 at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. He couldn't stifle it. He had just hit the winning shot in overtime against Rutgers, finally coming through for his teammates in the clutch.

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But that smile didn't last long. The next game, a week later at home against Seton Hall, Graves had his minutes cut down to 15. After playing 38 minutes in the first two Big East Conference games, Graves averaged 16 minutes the next five games. As his minutes went down, so did his confidence. As his confidence went down, so did his ability to shoot.

Graves, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Mansfield, Ohio, was 4 for 24 from the field and scored just 13 points in that five-game stretch and was held scoreless twice. After playing 13 minutes and scoring both of his points on free throws in a home win against Providence, Graves had a meeting with coach Jamie Dixon.

"After that game, I didn't know what was going on," said Graves, who remained a starter throughout his slump. "He said he was worried about me. He wanted me to stay confident. He told me just to have fun and not worry about things. I worry about coming out of the game if I do something wrong, and sometimes I think too much. He just wanted me to go out and have fun."

Graves had played lights out for the first month or so of the season. He scored in double figures in five of the first seven games, capped by an 18-point performance in an 84-71 victory at Penn State.

After that his already gimpy ankle was twisted and he had to miss the Richmond game. He came back for the next game against South Carolina, but he went the next nine games without hitting double figures.

"After my ankle injury, I had to come back and find my rhythm again," Graves said. "I didn't feel like I fit in like I did before. I didn't have my flow back. I felt like I had to do this and do that. The worse thing you can do is force things. I was really putting a lot of pressure on myself."

The meeting with Dixon was like a therapy session for Graves.

"Touching base with coach like that really helped me out a lot. It probably would have gotten a lot worse for me if he didn't say anything at all. We were playing West Virginia next, and he said he just wanted me to go out and play a good game against them."

Graves responded with 11 points and seven rebounds in 32 minutes. In the four games since the meeting, Graves is averaging 8.7 points in 33 minutes a game. More important, the confidence in his shot is back.

Graves is 8 for 15 from 3-point range in the past four games. He had three 3-pointers in a 68-64 victory Monday at Syracuse.

Regaining the confidence of his teammates has instilled more confidence in his psyche. It sounds so simple, but all Graves really needed was to feel like he was a part of the team again.

Now that things are going his way again, he is feeling like his old self.

"It's a big weight off my shoulders," said Graves, who remains the team's top 3-point shooter at 48 percent (25 for 52). "I'm not out there thinking about it now. I just want to continue to help out my teammates. I'm getting a lot of confidence from my defense now. Coach is putting me on the other team's top scorer a lot of times. It feels good being that big a part of the team."