Staff Photo by John Rawlston University of Tennessee at Chattanooga head coach Matt McCall watches from the sideline as the Mocs host Hiwassee College in a men's basketball game Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. UTC won their home opener by a score of 94-55.The floor on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team bus is going to be occupied a lot the next two weeks.
The Mocs begin a stretch of five road games in 10 days this evening when they face Illinois at 8:30. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and will be held in Springfield, Ill., as the Illini's home gym - the State Farm Center in Champaign - is being renovated and won't be available until Dec. 2.
The rows are as spacious as possible for a bus carrying 10 players who are at least 6-foot-4 and a staff member (strength and conditioning coach Collin Crane) who is 6-5.
"Those are the worst," 6-10 junior center Justin Tuoyo said about the extended road trip. "I just lay down, get on the floor and try to stretch out."
UTC is 2-0 after wins over Georgia and Hiwassee, averaging 93 points per game.
First-year Mocs coach Matt McCall hasn't become too acclimated to playing at McKenzie Arena, which is fine because he won't be coaching games there for a while.
"This is what we prepared for in the summer," Tuoyo said. "Coach McCall and Coach Crane looked ahead and we saw we were gone for two weeks, so we prepared for this and now we have the chance to do it. We're trying to get wins; we know it's going to be tough, but we look forward to it. We have a good group here and we're keeping our heads high going into battle."
After tonight's game, the Mocs play at seventh-ranked Iowa State on Monday. The games against Illinois and the Cyclones are first- and second-round games of the Emerald Coast Classic.
UTC then travels to Niceville, Fla., for third- and fourth-round games of the tournament. The Mocs will face Alabama State at noon Friday and then will play either Chicago State or Jacksonville State on Saturday, depending on the results.
The road stretch ends on Nov. 30 at Louisiana-Monroe. UTC will play at home on Dec. 8 against Tennessee Wesleyan.
"We have a very, very, very challenging schedule these next two weeks that we've got to be prepared for both mentally and physically," McCall said. "We're going to have to be able to move on quickly. I think that playing a schedule like this will prepare us for later in the season. There are some points in Southern Conference play that we have three games in five days, and to win a (SoCon tourney) championship and go to the (NCAA) tournament, we've got to win three games in three days.
"This will prepare us for later on, so it's back to the process of trying to get better every single day, so come January, February and March, we're playing our best basketball."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.