Long before Monday afternoon arrived, and Matt McCall became the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's 19th men's basketball coach, he had the same dream as most youngsters who could, in his words, "really, really shoot."
Said McCall of that dream: "I wanted to play in the NBA."
But he wasn't lucky enough to be blessed with the same body as his father, Wayne, who was a University of Florida linebacker good enough to become the Gators' captain in the mid-1960s.
"My mother's a musician," McCall said. "I got a musician's body."
So despite several Division II scholarship offers and a preferred-walk-on invitation from Stetson, McCall decided to embrace the immortal words of Clint Eastwood's iconic character Dirty Harry, who once noted, "A man's got to know his limitations."
He was still determined to make basketball his occupation, but as a coach rather than a player.
It is at this point that every Moc Maniac concerned with athletic director David Blackburn's decision to hire a 33-year-old who looks 13, someone who never previously has been a head coach at any level, someone just like former coach Will Wade, whose only shortcoming was too short a stay, needs to listen closely. Very closely.
Because McCall didn't just get a degree at his father's alma mater, find some high school assistant's gig, then slowly work his way up the coaching ladder.
No, McCall marched right into Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley's office at the start of his freshman year and asked the AD what he needed to do to get a job on Gators coach Billy Donovan's staff. After a phone call or two, Foley walked the kid with the really, really good shot over to the basketball offices.
"I first met with (assistant) Donnie Jones, who later became the Marshall head coach," McCall recalled. "I could become a student manager. I learned pretty quickly that no job was too small, that no one was better than anybody else."
He also learned that he probably made a wise decision not to rely on his really, really good shot to earn a living.
"My first day as manager was in October, start of fall practice," he said. "I hadn't had much interaction with Coach Donovan. We were leaving the court at the end of practice and I decided to shoot a jumper. It missed, then hit Billy in the top of the head. He wheeled around and said, 'How about a heads-up, man?'"
UTC's David Blackburn announces Matt McCall as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's new head men's basketball coach while at the UTC University Center on Monday, April 14, 2015. Yet from that ignominious beginning, a powerful bond grew between Donovan and his manager. When McCall left the Gators program for three years to become veteran coach Mike Jarvis's assistant at Florida Atlantic, Donovan would call twice a week to check up on him. Nearly all of those phone calls ended with a promise to bring the youngster back to Gatorsville as soon as there was an assistant's opening.
When that opportunity arrived in 2011, Donovan was true to his word. McCall returned just in time to become an important part of a sustained run of excellence in which the Gators reached three straight Elite Eights, won two consecutive SEC titles and reached the 2014 Final Four.
"There wasn't much adversity with those teams," he said with a grin during Monday's news conference.
But adversity hit both the Gators (who finished 16-17) and the Mocs this spring. Just two years on the UTC job, Wade returned to Virginia Commonwealth when VCU head coach Shaka Smart -- also a former Florida assistant -- went to Texas and the Rams turned to Wade, who'd accepted the UTC job in May of 2013.
"I really thought we'd have Will three or four years," Blackburn said Monday. "But my wife and I were watching television one night when 'Shaka Smart the leader for Texas' streamed across the bottom of the TV. I told Andrea then, 'That might be trouble.' She said he might not take it. I said, 'But he might.' I thought I better change my succession list from three to six."
Blackburn understandably refused to name the others on his list to possibly succeed Wade. But while vetting Wade two years earlier, he had become friends with Donovan due to Smart's time on the Florida staff. Also, because Blackburn is from Maryville, Tenn., he also called on former Gator and Maryville native Lee Humphrey, whose really, really good shooting helped Florida win national championships in 2006 and 2007.
"They both said the same thing, that he's a special person and special coaching talent," Blackburn said. "This will give us a chance to advance from where we are now IMMEDIATELY."
Of course, McCall was also vetting the Mocs, leaning hard on Donovan, whose own head coaching career began at former Southern Conference member Marshall in 1994 before he moved on to Florida two years later.
"I've had other chances to leave, but there were always question marks (from Donovan)," McCall said. "This time there were no question marks. No matter whom I talked to, everyone said UTC is a great opportunity."
If McCall's performance at Monday's presser is any indication, it's an equally great opportunity for UTC. A single moment to reflect Blackburn's admiration for the new coach's energy and passion, which the AD gushed "has already made me better."
As the presser was wrapping up, current players Justin Tuoyo and Greg Pryor were heading back to class. Seeing them about to leave, McCall broke off an answer to a media question in mid-sentence to tell his wife -- who's pregnant with the couple's second child -- "Allison, make sure you introduce yourself (to the players)."
He's also already spent enough time reviewing last year's game tapes to believe "(Wade) didn't press a ton," right before adding, "I want to press."
And befitting a young coach beginning his first head job, what McCall what most wants to do is "get on the floor and start working."
If that work could last three or four years instead of two before he grows tired of UTC's salary limitations, so much the better.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.