Mocs anticipate more enjoyment

The basketball Mocs have moved on to the fun part of the South Padre Island Invitational.

That's the part where they get to set their feet in the sand, dip toes into the Gulf of Mexico, share a holiday feast and face two comparable opponents.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (2-2) will play against host Texas-Pan American (0-5) today at 3:30 p.m. EST and then face either Longwood or Bethune-Cookman on Saturday. The game will be available online, for a fee, at www.b2livetv.com/index.asp.

"They are winnable games, but they are also losable," Mocs coach John Shulman said by phone before practice Thursday. "I'm glad that we are playing people that are comparable so we can run our sets, play our defense and see if we can have some success."

The Mocs had little offensive success in their last game, a 99-56 loss at Missouri on Tuesday. With an active full-court press, the Tigers forced UTC into 29 turnovers and made a Mizzou Arena record 18 3-pointers against the Mocs.

"In the first half we really struggled with the press, and in the second half we were better," said point guard Keegan Bell, who had five turnovers. "We turned it over so much that we couldn't get shots up.

"But I definitely felt better walking away from that game than at Richmond (a 75-49 loss)."

UTC sophomore forward Dante Harvey returned from an MCL sprain and played 17 minutes off the bench against Missouri. He had been out of action for about a month; his last game was against Connecticut in the 2009 NCAA tournament.

"It felt good," Harvey said. "After the Missouri game, we'll have a whole new demeanor coming into the weekend."

Shulman said Thursday that Harvey will be in the starting lineup in place of sophomore guard Ricky Taylor, who is 4-of-17 from the field on this road trip.

"I'm going to take some stress and pressure off Ricky," Shulman said. "He's feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He doesn't need to do that."