Staff File Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
UTC coach John Shulman talks to Jahmal Burroughs during a game against Tennessee Wesleyan at McKenzie Arena.GREENVILLE, S.C. -- DeAntre Jefferson and Jahmal Burroughs were less than a minute into the first drill of practice when coach John Shulman walked over and stopped them.
The two University of Tennessee at Chattanooga post players were in a defensive one-on-one drill.
"You played harder on that one play right there than you did all of last night," Shulman chided in Timmons Arena, where the Mocs will face Furman at 4 p.m. today. "What -- Did Noah Dahlman scare you? I didn't see either of you play as hard all last night as you just did right there on that play."
The Mocs needed defensive work after an 88-56 thumping Thursday night at Wofford.
Shulman put the Mocs through an abbreviated 90-minute practice in preparation for Furman, which is the most improved team in the league and led by seniors.
He hoped that watching Thursday's massacre, which began with a 15-0 deficit and swelled to a 42-point second-half crater, would help put the Wofford loss in the past.
"We didn't celebrate beating UNC Greensboro, Elon, Samford or Charleston," said Shulman, whose Mocs won their first seven Southern Conference games before that nose-busting face-plant into the hardwood. "After every win, it's over. We move forward. So why not do the same with this conference loss?
"We've watched the film, and it's over."
It looked just as bad a second time as it did live. The Terriers did almost everything they wanted to. They ran their offense to perfection, and their defense put the Mocs into a feeling where nobody seemed to want the ball.
Dahlman secured low-post position and easily scored on UTC's Jeremy Saffore -- who is seven inches taller -- and Jefferson. Jamar Diggs rarely had a hand in his face and shot 10-for-13 from the floor for a career-high 24 points. Cameron Rundles found similar looks from outside and easy driving lanes inside for a 23-point night.
Dahlman, Diggs and Rundles combined to shoot 27-of-35 (77.1 percent) and outscored the entire UTC team by 13 points.
"We didn't pressure the ball; we didn't box out; we didn't follow our principles," Mocs junior captain Ricky Taylor said. "It was exactly similar to [at] Austin Peay. It was a flashback, but we told ourselves we weren't going to have flashbacks and not let that happen again."
It did. Only worse.
"It's a wake-up call," Shulman said. "For whatever reasons, and there are many, we were unalert, we were flat, we were dead-legged. We looked like a team that had played four games in eight days against a team that had four days to prepare for us and with their backs against the wall.
"We got bullied."
The Mocs lost Thursday, lost bad, but they didn't lose any ground in the SoCon North Division standings because Western Carolina and Appalachian State also lost. UTC has a 2 1/2-game lead over WCU's Catamounts and a three-game lead over the Mountaineers.
But Furman is just one game behind Charleston and Wofford in the South Division, owns the best overall winning percentage in the conference and smoked South Carolina by 15 points earlier this season.
"I knew this was a difficult week and we could go 0-3 and still be a good team," Shulman said. "We're 1-1 so far. But Furman is one of the best teams in our league.
"They're just as talented as Charleston."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484.
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