Matt McCall would have loved to go into tonight's basketball road game against Atlantic 10 power Dayton with all of his options available.
Unfortunately for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's coach, right when he gets one key option back, he loses another.
Senior Casey Jones suffered an ankle injury during Friday's practice and is out indefinitely, starting with tonight's game against the Flyers (7-1), who are coming off a road win at Top 25 opponent Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
Jones, the only player in UTC Division I history to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 150 assists, has started all but three of the 91 games in his Mocs career. The 6-foot-5 forward currently leads the Mocs (6-2) in points, rebounds, assists and minutes played.
"Any time you have an injury or something like that happens, it's never easy," McCall said Friday. "It's especially difficult because you're leaving town the same day, and you have to still get some work done in practice.
"It's not the easiest of days, but we're going to be OK. We just have to move forward."
Center Justin Tuoyo, who missed the previous two games after suffering a concussion, practiced the last two days and is "most likely" going to play, according to McCall. The 6-foot-10 junior, who leads the team in blocked shots and is second in scoring at 11.2 points per game, will give the team its rim protector back.
He'll be needed against a Dayton team that has won 26 consecutive home games - the seventh-longest streak in the country.
The Flyers average 12,628 fans per game, one of the top numbers in the nation, and have been in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament as recently as 2014.
"I feel we can compete," UTC junior guard Tre' McLean said. "Our perspective and mentality going into games has changed, because we've been through a lot together. I feel what we have is able to compete with what the other team has."
McLean said the Mocs won't be intimidated going into the hostile environment.
"I don't know much about them. I know they're in Dayton, and they're in Ohio, but I pay attention to Chattanooga," McLean said. "We treat them just like any other opponent. We'll come in, prepare hard and play hard.
"Just like they tie their shoes, we tie ours."
Brian Gregory started the Flyers' recent run of success, winning 172 games with a pair of NCAA tournament appearances as the head coach from 2003 to 2011. He moved on to Georgia Tech and in came Archie Miller, who has built on that success with a 97-48 record and three trips to the Big Dance since taking over in April of 2011.
"We're going to have to play our best game," McCall said. "Our guys will be excited to play in that type of environment against a very, very good team.
"It's going to be an unbelievable challenge."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.