Allen Roberts is back. Healthier, happier and hopefully wiser.

The last year has been very difficult for the Miami University basketball player, a Middletown High School graduate. But he believes his time has arrived again.

“It’s just been a transition,” Roberts admitted. “You’ve got to get adapted back to the right mind frame and get everything back to the way it was. I’m doing that.”

The 6-foot-3, 214-pound guard missed the entire 2011-12 season because of a knee injury suffered on the third day of practice, so he was forced to watch the RedHawks stagger to a 9-21 record.

Then, after veteran coach Charlie Coles retired, Roberts tested new coach John Cooper with some legal problems. He was scheduled to go on trial last month to face a misdemeanor assault charge, but that case got dropped.

Cooper said Roberts needed to show him that he could be trustworthy and a responsible member of the team. Right now, the coach is pleased.

“Absolutely. He’s been on point,” Cooper said. “He’s been a model kid, a model student, and he’s figuring it all out. I think in some ways he’s matured a bit, so I’m certainly happy with where he is.”

The redshirt junior said he’s put the off-court issues behind him.

“You’ve just got to take those things in stride,” Roberts said. “I know in my mind that things happen, and it’s just how you grow from those things. I spoke with coach Cooper, I spoke with my parents, I spoke with multiple people. They all just said, ‘You’ve got to do everything they say. No backtalk, no anything like that. Just do it the right way.’ That’s the ony way I can go.”

Last season was a dark time for Roberts. He made 33 starts during his first two years in Oxford, averaging 7.9 points per game as a sophomore. He was ready for a breakout junior campaign.

And then he went up for a jump shot one day in practice.

“It happened right there in the corner, off a pass from Kenny Hayes,” said Roberts, pointing to a section of the Millett Hall hardwood. “I jumped in the air and my right knee popped. In my head, I knew I was pretty hurt.”

His cartilage needed to be repaired. He underwent microfracture surgery, which included holes being drilled in the bone near the damaged cartilage. He would be on crutches for about 10 weeks.

Miami, meanwhile, was playing basketball and not winning very often. Roberts simply watched.

“It was probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever done in my life,” he said. “It was heart-wrenching. I couldn’t focus. I was so down about the fact that I couldn’t play and help my teammates, and to see them suffering without me, it put me in a corner. I didn’t like it at all.”

It was a long road to recovery, but Roberts said he’s close to being 100 percent. There is still some pain in the knee. He was told that’s normal.

“I’ve got to push through it with my willpower,” Roberts said. “It’s just something you’ve got to get immune to.”

He’s excited about playing up-tempo basketball under Cooper and said the new coach is taking a straightforward approach with the players.

“We’re doing a lot of things differently,” Roberts said. “We’re having to actually do the things they want us to do the way they want them done. There’s no leaks or outlets. You have to do it that way. Everybody’s out here with a sense of purpose.”

He’s always had offensive skills and hopes to put them on display again this season. Yet defense has become foremost in his mind.

“I want to be one of the best defenders on the team because I have the abilities to be a good defender,” Roberts said. “I think sometimes I get away from that, but this year I want to have the mentality that if we stop you, we can beat you. I’ve set that as a personal goal.”

He hasn’t played in a game for Miami since March 16, 2011. What should fans expect when he steps back on the court?

“People are going to know that I’m still capable of my toughness and intensity,” Roberts said. “They’re going to see the same, if not better, Allen Roberts.”