Ricky Taylor slept in a bit Saturday, then went and watched a nightmare.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior guard endured a late-morning video session with his basketball teammates and coaches.
They reviewed the Mocs' 82-62 loss at No. 23 Tennessee on Friday night, and the moving images weren't pretty. Neither were the reviews.
"It was an embarrassment from my standpoint," said Taylor, who had seven points and three turnovers in 17 minutes.
"Embarrassment is a strong word because there's no excuse," he continued. "We learned some of the same stuff in junior high and high school. To make the same mistakes in college is unacceptable."
UTC's errors were so frequent and common that Taylor barely recognized the team wearing blue jerseys. At times, the Mocs miscommunicated on screens, were careless with the ball and were beat back down the floor in an attempt to play defense.
"That was some team from some other land out there," Taylor said. "That wasn't our sort of basketball at all."
Coach John Shulman screamed one of his famous quotes, such as "Build a wall," early and often in the contest. He wanted the Mocs to stick to the principles they've been taught for years, or the newcomers have learned this fall.
The Mocs, Taylor admitted Saturday and others did right after the game, did not play Chattanooga basketball on offense because they attempted 34 3-pointers and 21 2-point shots, or on defense because they were dominated in the lane instead of from the arc.
"We're not going to get beat inside the paint, and we're not going to get beat at the foul line - that's the John Shulman way," Shulman said. "We're going to make them beat us from the perimeter.
"They scored 15 points from the 3-point line and 57 in the paint and foul line."
That's not the Shulman way.
But as the coach pointed out, the Mocs lost their 2008-09 opener by 39 points at Tennessee but finished the season by winning the Southern Conference tournament and playing in the NCAA tournament.
"If we would have sprinted back on defense, if we would have guarded one-on-one, as crazy as this may sound, it's a five-point game in the first half," Shulman said on his way to the UTC football game. "We took horrible shots and we didn't guard."