Will Wade gets extra hour in Chattanooga Mocs' game week prep

photo Will Wade is the new UTC men's head basketball coach.
Arkansas-Oklahoma State Live Blog

Will Wade had been so engrossed in preparing for the Mocs' upcoming season-opener he forgot about something that affected almost everybody in America.

"I didn't even know about daylight savings until I woke up this morning," University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach said Sunday afternoon.

Wade and his Mocs wake up this morning with an unfamiliar feeling -- it's game week. The preseason is nearly over.

"I'm excited, but we've got more work to do this week," Wade said. "I think our guys are really excited. They're looking forward to playing somebody else with a crowd."

The preparation on this game week begins today and runs through tipoff on Friday evening when the Mocs play Covenant at 5:30 in McKenzie Arena. Almost every hour of the day is already scheduled for the players, coaches and support staff leading up to the doors opening Friday before the close of business.

UTC will hold a typical practice today then take Tuesday off before beginning a two-day prep for the Scots. It's the same process UTC will repeat during throughout season, except when they play back-to-back or have one day to prepare for a Southern Conference foe.

"We'll watch film, and we'll tailor our practice to what Covenant does," Wade said. "One day out we'll watch [video] before and after practice and go through our scouting report. The day-of, we have a shoot-around, another tape that we watch and we put the finishing touches on.

"I like to show four or five short films that are three minutes apiece, and that does a better job of keeping their attention."

The structure of practice will alter a bit with a blend of emphasis on UTC and Covenant with nearly every drill running at the same frenetic speed -- even shooting drills -- which have increased in the last two weeks.

"We've been working on our stuff, and we'll add in their things," Wade said. "When we got 4-on-4 and go into 5-on-5, we'll add in their things."

The details of a game day have already been organized, scheduled and even practiced. Wade and his staff have covered everything than can think of from morning breakfast to how they will warm up and hour before the game.

"In preparation for our scrimmage, we treated it like game prep," Wade said. "We did our two-day prep. We went over when we tape [ankles] when we come out, how we sit in the huddle during timeouts -- everything."

He had an extra hour to work on it this weekend.

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.

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