UTC's Omar Wattad gets ready to take a shot as Appalachian State's Nathan Healy watches at McKenzie Arena.University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball coach John Shulman had a light-hearted exchange as he exited the media room and College of Charleston coach Bobby Cremins entered Monday night.
Cremins offered his sincere congratulations for UTC's win in the matchup of the Southern Conference's two division leaders. Then he asked Shulman whom the Mocs play next.
"We're done. This was it," Shulman quipped, and Cremins laughed.
Shulman's team silenced doubters by defeating the Cougars 91-88.
It's one of the most high-profile regular-season victories of Shulman's career, but as he noted, it had no more impact on the postseason than the Mocs' previous two wins over The Citadel and Samford.
"'Mike & Mike' didn't want to talk to me this morning," Shulman said, referring to his ESPN radio interview after UTC won the 2005 SoCon tournament. "It felt like a championship game, but it wasn't.
"The only thing it did was get us one step closer to our goal of winning the [North] division and getting a bye."
The Cougars had won at Tennessee by 13 points, lost by one at Maryland and were 5-0 in the SoCon before facing UTC. They supposedly were - and could prove in the coming weeks to be - the best team in the SoCon.
The Mocs knocked them off the shelf of conference undefeated teams.
"It was crazy," said UTC guard Omar Wattad, who scored 27 points in the win. "We put on an offensive show. Both teams did."
SoCon coaches heaped praise on Shulman and the Mocs during the Tuesday morning teleconference, and Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter made a special third-party plea to ensure that his words of congratulations were passed on to Shulman.
SoCon tabs WattadUTC junior guard Omar Wattad was named Southern Conference player of the week Tuesday. The transfer from Georgetown averaged 24.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in UTC's wins over The Citadel, Samford and College of Charleston. He scored 30 and 27 points against the two Charleston teams and 17 against Samford.
Wofford coach Mike Young sounded honest when describing Thursday's matchup in Spartanburg of his Terriers and the Mocs as a "big game." He praised UTC's starting lineup one by one.
"How could you argue that they're not playing better than anybody in the league?" said Young, who was an assistant with Shulman under Richard Johnson at Wofford. "It will be a tall order for our club.
"They play very well together. ... They have the mentality of it doesn't matter how they get there, just win the game."
With all the praise Tuesday, including "a lot of e-mails and texts," Shulman said -- and campuswide congratulations for the players on their first day of classes -- he is determined to keep humility and perspective on the team's list of priorities.
"I've said before [after a loss] that we didn't lose an NCAA tournament at-large bid," Shulman said. "We didn't get one Monday by beating Charleston."
The Mocs took Tuesday off . They will return for a full meeting and practice today, then bus to Wofford and face the defending SoCon champions.
"We have to go into Wofford with this momentum," Ricky Taylor said Monday night. "This was a great win, but we're not satisfied."