University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Dante Harvey gets a little smirk when he thinks about the 2009 Southern Conference tournament championship game.
He came off the bench early and dunked -- a monster bucket pronouncing the Mocs as prepared to play against the favored College of Charleston.
The Mocs won and danced their way to New York City and "The Jimmy Fallon Show," which the Cougars could only watch on television. The College of Charleston returns today to McKenzie Arena, where they lost that 80-69 title game last March.
The Cougars will play UTC in the late end of a doubleheader that begins at noon with the Lady Mocs facing Western Carolina. The men's game is set to start at 2:30 p.m.
"It's going to be straight-up war this time," Harvey said. "Last year, they lost on this court. They lost the championship game on this court. They may come out with the mindset to smack us in the mouth and knock us out."
But this regular-season SoCon contest shouldn't turn out to be another Ali-Frazier. The Cougars are a little different, and the Mocs starters from last year are long gone.
"I'd like to say it's a rematch of the championship game," UTC coach John Shulman said. "The only problem is that we don't have any of those guys. They have the same players. We don't."
The Mocs' game Thursday was a classic with Keegan Bell swishing a 3-pointer at the final buzzer to beat The Citadel 56-54.
He capped a three-man play that took 3.2 seconds with Chris Early inbounding to 7-foot-1 center Jeremy Saffore, who tossed it to Bell.
"In the huddle, Coach said, 'All you have to do is catch the ball and flip it to Keegan on run,'" Saffore said. "It's the only time I've ever been scared on the court. I just had three words in my head: Catch the ball. That's all I thought about.
"It worked because we got another 'W' and we're still tied for first."
The Mocs (11-6, 3-1) are tied for first with Western Carolina in the North Division, and the Cougars (10-6, 5-0) are two games ahead of Wofford and Davidson in the South Division.
"Winning that game on Thursday is so important because I don't really know if they thought they could win it after we gave up the lead," Shulman said. "I'd like to pick an easier way to win, because I'm not going to tell you we played great.
"What a great way to win."