Chattanooga head coach John Shulman tries to motivate his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Lexington, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Kentucky won 87-62.It's the Basketball Basement Bowl.
Western Carolina and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga shared the Southern Conference North Division championship last year.
Today, both teams are in the basement of the division.
They'll duel tonight at 7 in the Ramsey Activity Center for the right to move up to fifth place -- a far cry from the first place they shared at the end of last season.
"We're under-manned, but I know no one cares," Shulman said. "In reality, that's what it is. We're playing good. We're not playing bad.
The Mocs (9-14, 3-7 SoCon) have lost five straight games with the first two losses suffered in the final minutes the last three coming in the final seconds. UTC played the second half against Davidson and all of its loss to Georgia Southern without power forwards Jahmal Burroughs and Zaccheus Mason, and neither player will be available tonight.
"You win or lose," Shulman said. "Peyton Manning was out for the Colts and they went 2-14. But in theory, they wouldn't have gone 2-14 with Peyton out there, but it doesn't matter in today's world."
WCU (9-14, 3-7) has lost six straight SoCon games and sandwiched a 102-point win over Toccoa Falls in between. But in that stretch, only an 89-86 overtime loss at UNC Greensboro had a final margin of less than eight points.
"With the number of consecutive conference games that we've lost, we're struggling," WCU coach Larry Hunter said. "We've had some good spurts in ball games and then we have breakdowns."
Hunter said he is still searching, even as the calendar has flipped to February, for a consistency -- in his lineup and in production.
"There never seems to be a consistent area," Hunter said. "One night it's shooting, one night it's rebounding, one night it's execution.
"We need a win in a bad way and need to find a way to get one soon."
Shulman -- who will be without Burroughs and Mason again -- learned just prior to Tuesday's daily meeting that his friend, Ken Duke, earned a spot in this week's PGA tournament.
Duke will be in the same group as Kyle Stanley who blew a three-shot lead on the final hole and lost in a two-hole playoff to Brandt Snedeker on Sunday.
Shulman texted Duke: "Tell Stanley that you're buddy is living his pain too."
He called in his coaching staff to watch the replay of Stanley's championship-losing hole.
"Did he hit a bad shot here? No," Shulman said. "He hit a good shot. He hit the same shot Snedeker did on 18, but Snedeker's rolls beside the hole and Stanley's spins into the water.
"He lost a trip to The Masters, a two-year exemption, and probably a million dollars."
Stanley has the rest of the season to make amends.
The Mocs have one game to get out of the basement and eight games left in the regular season.