University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball coach Wes MooreUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball coach Wes Moore said he likes what he's seeing out of his team this preseason, including during last Saturday's closed scrimmage against Tennessee Tech.
"We played with a lot of energy and we're trying to be more active on [defense], and I felt like we did a good job with that," Moore said Monday in the Wolford Strength and Conditioning Center, where the Lady Mocs were lifting weights with Boyz II Men blasting in the background.
They return a veteran group from last season's team that went 22-10, finished third in the Southern Conference and lost in the first round of the WNIT. UTC was picked to finish third in the league this season by the coaches and media.
With a 12-player roster that includes two freshmen, Moore said he feels good about the depth.
"I definitely feel like we can go two deep at every position and not really have a lot of drop-off, if any," he said. "It's a good start, and one advantage we have is that we have 10 veterans and only two freshmen."
The Lady Mocs will be part of tonight's Blue-Gold Tipoff at McKenzie Arena, but the men's team will do most of the playing. The Lady Mocs have an exhibition against Lee University on Thursday, so Moore doesn't want his team doing too much tonight after practicing earlier in the day.
Both Moore and junior forward Taylor Hall, a preseason All-SoCon pick, said they liked the new wrinkles UTC is adding offensively. The Lady Mocs will be more active and try to attack the rim more in their one-in, four-out system.
"We're kind of mixing some things up this year, and overall I thought we did a pretty good job [against TTU]," Hall said.
UTC also will be employing a more aggressive defensive system this season. Moore said the players, especially the backups, aren't as far along on that as they are with the offensive changes.
With the scrimmage last Saturday and Thursday's exhibition, UTC has had a staggered lead-up to next Friday's opener against Tennessee.
"We have a few days between each one to look at what happened," Hall said. "It's a step at a time, and hopefully we'll be ready for the season."
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.