UTC men to face Indiana in NCAA tournament first round

Members of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga mens' basketball team and their fans erupt in cheers as they hear their selection during the NCAA tournament bracket broadcast shown in an auditorium at the UTC University Center Sunday, Mar. 13, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. UTC will face Indiana in a first-round game on Thursday, Mar. 17, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Members of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga mens' basketball team and their fans erupt in cheers as they hear their selection during the NCAA tournament bracket broadcast shown in an auditorium at the UTC University Center Sunday, Mar. 13, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. UTC will face Indiana in a first-round game on Thursday, Mar. 17, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Matt McCall wasn't going to let his cellphone ruin the moment Sunday night.

As the field for the NCAA men's basketball tournament was being gradually announced during the annual selection show on CBS, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach started to receive texts telling him of a possible leaked bracket online.

"I told them I didn't want to know," said McCall, who's in his first year leading the Mocs after previously working as an assistant to Billy Donovan at Florida.

"I wanted to find out with the players and celebrate with them. But my phone was blowing up."

The leaked bracket turned out to be correct, and UTC is happy with the outcome.

The Southern Conference regular-season and tournament champion Mocs (29-5) were given a No. 12 seed and will play in the East Regional, opening against fifth-seeded Indiana (25-7) on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. It will be UTC's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2009. Tipoff is set for 7:10 p.m., and the game will be televised on CBS.

The last time the Mocs were a No. 12 seed was in 1997, when they upset Georgia and Illinois to advance to the Sweet 16. Interestingly enough, UTC beat both of those programs this season.

Now they'll face the Hoosiers, whose five NCAA titles are tied for third all-time.

"Indiana is a good team," UTC junior point guard Greg Pryor said. "We just have to come out, stay focused, play our game and not let the name of the team affect us at all. We have to go out and play; play and compete as hard as we can. If we do those things, in the end things will come out in our favor."

For UTC seniors, especially those who have been with the program four seasons, just seeing the team's name fall into a seed line was a great feeling. It's one that won't soon be forgotten.

"It probably means more to me than the other guys," senior guard Eric Robertson said. "We can win this game. We have a good chance to win this game, and we're excited to be able to play."

UTC's first trip to Iowa this season included headaches, snow, a long bus trip and a 20-point loss to Iowa State.

This trip is already off to a much better start because it's under much better circumstances.

The Mocs won't have to make a snowy ride from Springfield, Ill., to Ames as they did Nov. 23, when they lost 83-63 to then-No. 4 Iowa State. UTC will head straight to its first-round site, where the Big Ten's regular-season champions will be waiting, led by senior point guard Yogi Ferrell and forward Troy Williams. McCall recruited Williams when the coach was still at Florida.

"I have the utmost respect for the job Tom Crean did this year," McCall said of the Hoosiers' head coach. "It's a historical program.

"We'll start cracking on these boys tonight. We're excited about the opportunity."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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