John Shulman talked to the Mocs in the lockerroom a little longer than usual Wednesday night.
His University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team lost 87-75 to Jackson State.
"Coach was telling us that we need to bring it, that our effort was terrible, we didn't have any heart and things of that nature," junior guard Ricky Taylor said. "Things aren't going to go our way. We weren't listening and we weren't communicating."
Plenty went right for the Mocs at one end of the floor. They scored 75 points, had 23 assists (10 from Keegan Bell) just 11 turnovers, and made 10 3-pointers.
But problems persist when they're trying to prevent the other team from scoring. Jackson State, which earned its first win of the season, had been averaging just 51 points per game.
Granted some of those games were against the likes of Louisville, Baylor and Central Florida, still they broke their season high of 60 points by 27.
"I would think 75 points at home is good enough," Shulman said. "But we have guys who think offense is the way to go. Until we understand that we have to defend, this will continue to happen."
The Tigers turned a two-point game with 10 minutes to play into a comfortable victory for the Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason favorites. They turned a one-point UTC lead with 12:55 to play into a double-digit lead for them by scoring on 11 of their next 13 possessions.
"I think we were out there, half of us were asleep and we didn't wake up at all," Taylor said. "Our defensive presence wasn't there. In order for us to be successful, we have to play defense."
Jenniro Bush led all players with 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting including 5-of-8 from the 3-point line. Rod Melvin added 13, Grant Maxey contributed 12 points for JSU.
DeAntre Jefferson tied a career high with 18 points and seven rebounds for UTC (2-4). Taylor scored 18 points, Chris Early scored 11 and Omar Wattad had 10.
The Mocs struggled from the floor for all but an early stretch. They finished shooting 41.9 percent from the field, and were 10-of-36 from the 3-point line and 13-of-21 from the free throw line.
JSU shot 56 percent from the floor including 11-of-19 from the 3-point line. They also hit 74.1 percent of their free throws compared to 61.9 percent for UTC.
"This is a hard loss," Jefferson said. "I think JSU is a real good team. They competed at a high level in their other games. We need to play a team like this. It was good to play a team that has good athletes and good players."