When the Siena men's basketball team struggled last season, many fans wondered where was Kyle Downey?

He was wondering that same thing.

Slowed by a right knee issue, Downey never really felt like himself last season, as the Saints struggled to a 13-18 finish.

“Last year was frustrating because it wasn’t me as a player out there,” Downey said Friday, at the team's media day event. “I feel like I could have contributed a lot more, but it was my limitation with my knee and my shot wasn’t there.”

Downey averaged just 6.2 points per game and played in just 23 games, last season, as a junior.

Downey said throughout the season, he could feel his knee shift on him, even with the brace on and when it finally came off, the knee was still sore.

“It all caught up to me and I couldn’t get back to where I wanted to be,” he said.

This season, he's feeling "phenomenal" and hopes to really contribute once again.

“I struggled last year and it was really frustrating,” Downey said. “Hopefully, this year I can show people what I can actually do.”

Downey begins practice 10 pounds lighter than last year because as the injury lingered, he couldn't do as much conditioning as he would normally.

“I needed the summer just to get my body back,” he said.

Now healthy, coach Mitch Buonaguro is expecting a lot from the senior.

“There’s not a guy in the program that has worked harder than him — first on his body, on his game and his overall attitude to leading this team back to a championship,” Buonaguro said.

Downey says he had his teammates have worked too hard, not to make this season as successful as possible.

“We put in a lot more work this summer, probably more than the last four or five years because last year didn’t sit well with us," he said.