UTC still has bye hope

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga still has a chance to win the Southern Conference North Division men's basketball championship for the second straight year.

But that chance for the Mocs is slimmer than Josh Odem's ankles.

"Western Carolina could lose all of their remaining games and we could win all of ours," UTC sophomore Ricky Taylor said before Monday's games. "You never know, so we're going to play it out."

The Mocs (13-12 5-7) are 2 1/2 games out of first place after Elon beat Western Carolina (18-7, 8-5) and Appalachian State (14-10, 8-4) climbed into first place by beating UNC Greensboro on Monday night.

UTC and ASU each has six more conference games, and WCU has five left to play.

"It's not too late for me to keep working on my game, and it's not late for this team to start winning again and make a run in the SoCon tournament," said Taylor, who spent 45 minutes on shooting drills before the Mocs' daily meeting Monday. "I believe we still have to work and can't take any days off."

Even though the Mocs have not given up on their goal of winning the division, second place would suit them just fine because it also comes with a first-round bye in the league tournament. No team has won the tournament without the extra day of rest.

Yet the Mocs are beginning to think about having to win four straight games to repeat as tournament champions.

"You change your outlook," UTC coach John Shulman said. "You try to get better and you start thinking about how you're going to be that first team ever to win four in a row. The obstacle is there, and if you don't get the bye, it's an even bigger obstacle."

The Mocs put themselves in this desperate situation by losing five straight road games.

At UNC Greensboro they led by 16 and lost. At Elon they led by 14 and lost. And last Saturday they were down by one with 4:52 to play and lost 68-60 at The Citadel. They could be, should be, at least 7-5 if not 8-4 in the SoCon.

"It's tough on the road. It's lonely on the road. It's dirty, it's nasty on the road. It's hard to win on the road," sophomore forward Dante Harvey said. "We're in third and that's tough.

"The mentality we should have now is win or go home, and we're going to treat these next few games like playoff games even though they're not. That's how we have to play."

UTC hosts Samford on Wednesday, followed by a Saturday matchup with Furman.

"Now it looks like we have to go shock people," point guard Keegan Bell said. "Maybe we have to change history and be that team that wins four in a row."