UTC basketball player Jahmal BurroughsCoach John Shulman pulled out a plastic bin filled with plastic balls scribbled with Sharpie marks from behind his podium in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball meeting room Friday.
Shulman showed the bin to the team.
Up to a few minutes before the Mocs gathered to prepare for the Southern Conference game against Appalachian State tonight, he hadn't seen the bin in almost three years, when he gave it away as a gag gift at the postseason awards banquet.
Memories flashed through his mind when he saw the plastic balls again. For a moment or two -- more than usual -- he was actually speechless.
The balls represented memories from the final games of the 2008-09 season when UTC won the SoCon tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament.
Each ball had the number of a player from that season, the opponent UTC played and the sort of "Big Ball Winning Play" that the player made -- a late free throw, an offensive rebound, taking a charge, a big dunk.
Shulman didn't use the motivational ploy last year. He started doing so this season after the 25-point loss at No. 3 Kentucky on Dec. 17.
And he added a season-record 28 balls to the new bin Friday after the Mocs (6-9, 1-2) beat Western Carolina 78-62 on Thursday.
"Let's keep filling up the box," Shulman said, according to somebody in the meeting. "Let's add another box this year."
Seniors Keegan Bell, Ricky Taylor and Omar Wattad added to the collection of balls during UTC's team meeting before practice. So did Zaccheus Mason, Dontay Hampton and several other Mocs.
"If you don't have those effort plays, then we don't win," Shulman said before the meeting Friday. "Our effort and hustle was noticeably different."
They all took their cues from the UTC starter with the most bland stat line from Thursday -- Jahmal Burroughs.
"He gets no recognition at all, but he is playing his tail-end off," Shulman said. "It's not all perfect with him, but I'm going to give Jahmal some credit because he's playing so hard.
"And what happens is that other players see him do that, and it's contagious."
Wattad, who takes his share of charges, caught the bug and dove for two loose basketballs in crucial moments. Drazen Zlovaric showed the effects when he gambled against face-planting into the bleachers in favor of saving an offensive rebound.
"More reps means more confidence, and with more confidence things come along," said Burroughs, who used to look over his shoulder after every mistake to see if he'd be pulled from a game. "In the meeting today, Coach established me as the emotional leader of the team.
"I've always been the high-energy guy on every team I've played on."
Nobody may have caught on to the hustle bug more than Mason, who splits time with Burroughs at the power-forward spot in the absence of Chris Early.
Mason, who's playing his first season of hoops after two years at tight end for Ole Miss football, set a career high with 23 minutes Thursday. He came one point and one rebound shy of his first career double-double.
"Go hard, get on the glass and get the offense going by screening are the things I can do," Mason said. "I feel good after a long game yesterday. I had so much fun. I felt like we were together in the clutch time. I enjoyed playing last night -- a good win."