Jared Bryant plays defense on the first official day of UTC basketball practice Friday.Freshmen Rico White and Jared Bryant grabbed cups of water during a break in practice and looked at each other.
They tried to figure out if it was OK to sit down during a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball break.
Neither wanted to sit down first. So they stood.
Then senior Omar Wattad took a seat and the freshmen followed suit, as casual as possible in the Chattem Practice Facility.
"It was funny because I was real scared to sit down," Bryant said. "I still don't know if we're allowed to get water unless it's during a water break. There's a lot of things I'm still trying to figure out.
"I really don't know whether I'm allowed to laugh at some of Coach's jokes."
Coach John Shulman stopped a fundamental defensive drill during the weekend and asked, "What are we doing now?"
The correct answer was "Building habits," as senior point guard Keegan Bell answered.
Shulman's newcomer crew of four true freshmen and a football transfer have spent the individual workout sessions and the first official practices doing just that -- building fundamental habits that will serve them for their entire UTC careers.
They're also trying to break bad habits formed in high school when they could get away with going for a swat or trying to make the fancy play because they were the best players on the floor.
"We have to get the defensive concepts and the verbiage down and we'll be fine," White said. "I just try to play, and if I make a mistake I'll do it full speed. If I'm thinking, I'm one step behind."
Shulman said he can see the newcomers thinking while they play. They're a step slow to the ball, a beat behind during drills when they're computing new terminology, fresh habits and different basketball philosophies.
"We're putting in our base offense and base defense," Shulman said. "If you struggle in algebra it's because you didn't get the base math back in the day and you're always behind.
"They've done a good job so far."
The veterans are taking arithmetic 101 again. They've passed in the past but should improve their grade to an "A" this time around. And they're embracing the very basics with the new guys.
If Shulman yelled "Fire! Fire! Fire!" in practice any day this week, half of the players would run out of the building and the other half would double-team the post.
"The veterans haven't been bored with that," Shulman said. "We've had senior classes that were and we start 2-8 and 0-3 in the league. This group has done a good job of doing it right to show the young guys."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.