As then-new University of Tennessee at Chattanooga chancellor Steve Angle and then-new athletic director David Blackburn laid out a vision for the future of the athletic department to eventual women's basketball coach Jim Foster in 2013, the College Basketball Hall of Famer listened.
Intently.
The plan was to make the entire sports department one of the most successful at the mid-major and Football Championship Subdivision level, if not nationally.
Mission accomplished.
"They had a vision and they had an attitude, a mentality that led me to believe that this week was planned," Foster said. "It's not happenstance."
Over the next 10 days, UTC athletic teams will have multiple high-profile appearances. Foster's Mocs get the ball rolling this afternoon when they face Rutgers on the Big Ten Network Plus at 2 in Piscataway, N.J. The UTC men face Tennessee tonight at 7 on the online-only SEC Network Plus.
Matt McCall's Mocs then will travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., to face the sixth-ranked Tar Heels on ESPN2 on Sunday. Foster's Mocs will host Top 25 teams Florida and Indiana next week.
The football team will have back-to-back opportunities to be featured on ESPN, as they travel to face FBS top-ranked Alabama on Nov. 19 in a game that will be shown on either ESPN2 or ESPNU before the Football Championship Subdivision playoff selection show, televised on ESPNU.
"I kind of wish our (Alabama) game wasn't on ESPN or no television, to be honest with you," football coach Russ Huesman joked earlier this week, before adding, "Any time you get on that station, it's huge. Huge for us, huge for football, huge for basketball. It's pretty cool what our basketball programs have done here.
"They're big time."
McCall said the fact the Mocs teams are sharing the spotlight has been a product of their ability to work together. There is no division among them, only love and support from each of the three main sports at UTC.
"David Blackburn and staff, this athletic department is in as good of position as it's ever been," McCall said. "I think that there's a level of excitement for our programs, all working together. We all want to see each other have success, and at a lot of institutions that's not the case - they're constantly in competition or competing - but this is probably as good a position as this athletic department has been in.
"And again, that goes back to David and his staff to credit them that they put us in positions to play these kind of opponents. Getting this kind of exposure is great for recruiting, great for our fans and great for the community."
A couple of wins in some of these games could help as well. In Foster's second season at UTC, 2014-15, his Mocs defeated Tennessee and Stanford inside McKenzie Arena, and they're hoping for similar success against the 20th-ranked Gators on Monday and the 23rd-ranked Hoosiers on Thursday.
He said the small-school-against-big-school mentality that surrounds these games, even in the friendly home confines of Chattanooga, makes the games interesting to be in and fun to be around. And it's part of the vision explained to him three years ago.
"It's refreshing to work with people who get it, and understand what 'it' means, regardless of where you are," Foster said. "When you're in a place like Chattanooga, you go in knowing it's going to take us 10 hours to get home Saturday. Some of these conferences hop on a private jet and they're home in an hour and a half, but these kids have to deal with the 10 hours and there's something to be said for those kids, the sacrifices they're making and the challenges they're willing to accept.
"I like the kind of people that I'm going to battle with, per se. They have a little 'David versus Goliath' - 'Here we come; we're going to take our shot.' It's kind of fun."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.