Cage time nears

The UTC junior college transfer goes a full practice for the first time all season.

The UTC junior college transfer goes a full practice for the first time all season.

Troy Cage looked spent, exhausted and about of breath while chugging Powerade at the end of practice Monday.

He wanted to sit down, relax, recoup and regroup. Instead, he and his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball teammates headed across the hall for a weightlifting session.

It was the first time this season -- even dating back to the preseason exhibition trip to Canada -- that the junior college transfer practiced for the entire two-hour session.

"Actually, I feel good," Cage said. "I'm tired, but I'm good."

The Mocs reverted to basics in their first practice following a 90-66 Southern Conference thumping Saturday by the College of Charleston in McKenzie Arena. UTC is 11-7 overall, 3-2 in league play.

"It was disappointing to lose the game because we'd been on a six-game win streak," freshman forward Sam Watson said. "It was an eye-opener because we'd been playing so well, but Charleston opened our eyes to where we need to be at the end of the year."

The Mocs' workday began with a one-hour meeting and video review to go over their loss before a two-hour session dedicated mostly to defense, rebounding and offensive execution.

"When a win streak is over, you get to rebuild and go back to the basics," point guard Keegan Bell said. "I think everybody took this loss to heart, because when things are rolling you sometimes forget or get lackadaisical, and we focused today on cleaning things up."

Coach John Shulman clipped eight minutes of video from the first half to show his team its mistakes. The video session ended with a shot of the scoreboard showing UTC down 52-44 with 15:57 to play.

"I showed them all those mistakes, and eight minutes is a lot of mistakes," Shulman said. "Then they looked at me and had this look like, 'We made all those mistakes and were only down eight?'"

Cage had no part in the eight-point deficit swelling to 26 points.

He missed the first part of the season due to shin splints that evolved into a stress fracture that resulted in an operation to put a two-foot-long metal rod in the bottom half of his right leg.

For the first time this season, UTC managers will pack Cage's No. 12 jersey for a road trip.

But that doesn't mean he'll play at UNC Greensboro, Elon or Wofford on the Mocs' upcoming six-day swing that may have second-year manager Brian Murphy searching for a laundromat somewhere in the Carolinas.

Even though Cage -- a 6-foot-5 wing who transferred from Kilgore (Kan.) Community College after two years at UNLV -- may be physically ready to play and has witnessed almost every practice and participated in some, he may not be mentally ready to play.

He's suffering from a serious case of returning-to-the-mix-itis. He's thinking on the court instead of reacting.

Sophomore forward Chris Early suffered from it when he returned from a broken hand and sophomore forward Dante Harvey is going through it now after playing limited minutes in the last two games.

"There's a difference between getting cleared to play and being ready to play," Shulman said. "Troy doesn't know what we're doing. Out there today, Troy got nailed on a ball screen and I'm thinking, 'Going to have to reteach everything to Troy.' Which I'm not going to do.

"He'll get in there soon enough."

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