KNOXVILLE — Don’t feel sorry for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball Mocs this morning. They’ll rebound quite nicely from Saturday night’s 114-75 loss to Tennessee once they start playing fellow mid-majors rather than potential Final Four teams.

Instead, worry about the financial future of Chick-fil-A. The restaurant giant agreed to swap a free chicken sandwich for a UT ticket stub each time the Vols score 90 or more points in Thompson-Boling Arena this season.

As UTC coach John Shulman said as he critiqued the Big Orange effort: “Chick-fil-A could lose a lot of money this year.”

They started giving away sandwiches from this one with 10:49 left in the game when a Tyler Smith jumper made it 90-52.

The Vols hit 100 on a thunder dunk from sophomore Cameron Taylor with 8:19 to go to put UT ahead by 45. Thankfully for the Mocs, the Big Orange never pulled ahead by more than those 45 points the rest of the way, tying that margin for the final time with 3:47 to go (111-66).

By the time it ended, the Vols had placed six players in double figures, shot 59 percent from the floor and outrebounded UTC by 42-30.

A year ago inside the Mocs’ McKenzie Arena, UTC had outrebounded UT by 15 in a 76-70 loss.

“They’re very good,” said Mocs senior guard Stephen McDowell. “They’re super talented. They go to the boards hard. They play defense. We could have executed better, though.”

Perhaps. But this was more UT playing well than UTC playing badly, regardless of how many times Mocs senior post player Nicchaeus Doaks said, “We didn’t compete. We didn’t bring it. We thought we were ready, but we weren’t.”

Or maybe the Vols are ready to become a top-five program. Just consider this one tiny moment in time from a big whipping. With 10:01 to go in the opening half, the Mocs had sliced a 14-point deficit in half, trailing 29-22 when UT coach Bruce Pearl called a 30-second timeout.

Over the next 57 game seconds, the following took place: a 3-pointer from freshman wing Scotty Hopson, a 3-pointer from junior forward Tyler Smith and a three-point play the old-fashioned way from junior point guard Bobby Maze.

Now the Vols led 38-22. UTC was never closer than 14 points the rest of the way and never closer than the halftime margin of 23 (60-37) in the final half.

Most instructive, however, may not have been the point total or victory margin but how it was achieved. Playing with Maze at point for the first time in a game that counted, the Vols had a school-record 32 assists, breaking the previous mark of 31 set against Tennessee Tech in 1988.

That means 75 percent of UT’s 43 buckets came with assists. As Tatum said afterward, “We’re starting to form a brotherhood here.”

One thought on the Mocs that has nothing specifically to do with basketball. Lose the black uniforms, guys. It’s bad enough that UTC was 0-4 a year ago in the dark attire. The more important point is that the last time we checked on such details, the school’s colors were still blue and gold.

So unless UTC’s getting some huge financial kickback for subliminally advertising for the next “Men in Black” sequel, it’s time to return to the program’s true colors.

Otherwise, this was almost entirely a credit to Pearl’s Jammers than a discredit to UTC.

“I made a comment before this game that only (top-ranked) North Carolina may have better talent, and I may have to stick with that,” Shulman said. “If they mesh, I think they have a chance to be really special.”

If they mesh, they may cause a worldwide chicken shortage.

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