SoCon women’sbasketball tournament
At U.S. Cellular CenterAsheville, N.C.Seeds listedToday› No. 1 UTC vs. No. 8 Western Carolina, 11:30 a.m.› No. 4 UNC Greensboro vs. No. 5 Furman, 1:45 p.m.› No. 2 Mercer vs. No. 7 Wofford, 4› No. 3 ETSU vs. No. 6 Samford, 6:15Friday› UTC/Western Carolina winner vs. UNCG/Furman winner, 11 a.m.› Mercer/Wofford winner vs. ETSU/Samford winner, 1:15 p.m.Sunday Championship game› Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.
Talk of the National Invitation Tournament apparently has no place at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
When asked about the NIT on Tuesday, UTC women's basketball coach Jim Foster "couldn't hear the question."
Junior starters Chelsey Shumpert and Keiana Gilbert said no mention has been made among the Mocs, (18-10), who open the Southern Conference tournament against Western Carolina (8-21) at 11:30 this morning at U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C.
The Mocs have earned the SoCon's automatic bid into the NIT should they not win the title at the conference tournament, where they are seeded No. 1. They shared the regular-season SoCon title with Mercer - the fifth consecutive season UTC has won a SoCon championship - but received the top seed and the NIT bid due to sweeping the home-and-home series with Mercer, wins that came by an average of 19 points per game.
But a backup plan is far from the Mocs' minds.
"I feel like we if we have that in our heads, bad results can happen," Shumpert said. "We try to do what we normally do - get to the NCAA tournament and try to get past the first round this time."
The Mocs won their final three games of the regular season - against Western Carolina, Furman and Wofford - by an average of 18.3 points. On Tuesday, Foster said he feels good about his players' confidence heading into the tournament.
"We're playing well," he said. "That's the only gauge you have. We're practicing hard."
UTC went through a midseason lull that included a loss at UNC Greensboro on Feb. 16. The winning streak started the next game, though, and having had a chance to regroup and refocus, the Mocs' eyes are on Asheville and a tournament site where they haven't lost since the 2011-12 semifinals.
"We feel pretty good about our confidence level," Gilbert said. "Towards the end of the season, we kind of slacked off, but in the last few practices and games in SoCon we got our confidence back.
"We're ready for the tournament to begin."
' Correction: A story on the UTC women's basketball team's SoCon awards in Wednesday's Times Free Press reported that Jasmine Joyner was the SoCon defensive player of the year and that it was the third consecutive season a Moc had been awarded that honor. This is the fourth consecutive season that has happened. Taylor Hall received the award for the 2013-14 season, and Alicia Payne was given the honor each of the two past two seasons.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.