Injury bug back again for UTC basketball team

The injury bug has struck the Mocs again.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore forward Dante Harvey suffered an MCL tear to his right knee during a closed scrimmage Sunday at Auburn.

“They think it’s a torn MCL, which is better than an ACL, and he has an appointment (today) to get it checked out,” Mocs coach John Shulman said. “They checked him there, and they don’t think he’ll need surgery.

“I guess the grade of what’s torn tells you how long he’s out. Whether it’s 4-6 weeks, 6-8 weeks, maybe a couple weeks, who knows now?

“He’s on ice with crutches and a leg-brace on.”

Harvey figured to play an integral role this season, especially early since Ty Patterson will miss the first eight games due to an academic suspension by Shulman.

Harvey played in 21 games last season despite a foot injury. He averaged 1.7 points and less than a rebound per game during the season. But in the Southern Conference championship game, he scored six points including two on an impressive dunk which helped propel UTC to the NCAA tournament.

Despite Harvey’s bad news, Shulman said the Mocs had an informative, impressive and productive day playing against the Tigers who are coached by former UTC coach Jeff Lebo. Shulman praised transfer forwards Ridge McKeither, DeAntre Jefferson and point guard Keegan Bell. He later added that Jeff Smith, a junior from Tyner, had a fine afternoon.

“I didn’t know if we would be able to score or get a stop because my last experience with this club was in Canada and we weren’t very good,” Shulman said. “In the first scrimmage, we were physical and pretty good.”

Then both sides took a break for lunch and the coaching staffs reviewed video from the morning session before playing three 10-minute periods in the afternoon with unlimited timeouts for the coaches to work with their players.

“Boy, did we compete our guts out,” Shulman said. “We played really good. We competed. We guarded. We boxed out. We did what we have to do to be successful.

“We got a lot better.”

Shulman and Mocs will learn more about their early-season progression when they play an exhibition game Saturday at 7 p.m. in McKenzie Arena against Tennessee Wesleyan.

“We’re leaving here beat up,” Shulman said, referring to the absence of Harvey, Troy Cage and Chris Early who did not play against Auburn. “But I think we leave here with confidence that we have a chance to be good this year.”