UTC's Tre' McLean (23) drives to the basket guarded by Marshall's Austin Loop in second half action Tuesday, Dec. 6, at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs bench erupts as UTC closes on a Marshall lead in the first half of play Tuesday at McKenzie Arena.
UTC's Tre' McLean passes inside guarded by Marshall's Stevie Browning (2) and Austin Loop (35).Out on the Roundhouse hardwood, Marshall versus the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Tuesday night looked pretty much like the old days. In other words, a men's college basketball classic eventually won 96-85 by the host Mocs in a game that was much closer than the final score.
As winning coach Matt McCall said after watching his team improve to 7-2 on the season: "This was fun. This was a fun game to be a part of."
And it was, though it would have been much more fun if far more than the generously announced crowd of 3,064 had shown up. For compared to what took place in the stands 30 years ago, where bedlam almost always reigned in these matchups, there wasn't much to compare it to the 1980s and early 1990s, when Marshall-UTC was pretty much the definition of old-fashioned hate in the Southern Conference.
In fact, to count by hand the number of fans in the stands seated in the lower level from section 211 to section 219 to the floor - baseline to baseline on the team-benches side - was to find 408 fans inside the game's final four minutes.
Even if you double that for the press-row side - which typically seems more full - then give 350 fans to each end zone you still come in at no more than 2,000 fans for what was once one of the hottest mid-major rivalries in college hoops.
"I remember the spring of 1987, my freshman year," said Roundhouse public address announcer and local radio personality Scott McMahen. "I stood in line outside for two hours with my student ID just to get in this place."
And given the rally the Mocs made that night from 11 down with four to go to nip the Thundering Herd 82-78, McMahen considered those two hours a bargain.
Brandon Born, a UTC star in the early 1990s, remembered coming to the Roundhouse from his Ringgold home to watch those 1980s Mocs-Herd contests, even though his older brother Gerry was starring at Davidson in those days.
"It seemed like those games were always sold out, or at least close to that," Born said as he surveyed the sparse crowd. "Where's (former Marshall coach) Rick Huckabay when you need him? Or Skip Henderson? Or John Taft? Those were the guys UTC fans always loved to hate."
Marshall eventually left the Southern Conference, and finding teams for Moc Maniacs to hate, or even moderately dislike, has been increasingly difficult. UTC-East Tennessee State was pretty spirited for a time and may be again now that the Bucs have returned to the SoCon. Mocs Nation tried to build up a healthy disdain for Davidson, but it rarely translated to huge crowds, even when the remarkable Stephen Curry was in the building.
So finding some team to make UTC fans' blood boil the way Marshall once did would be really nice for both the atmosphere inside McKenzie Arena and UTC's skin-tight athletic department budget.
And, oh, what a home team the Scenic City's basketball fans are missing by staying away whenever McCall's Mocs take the court.
Tuesday night saw senior forward Tre McLean pour in a game-high 35 points and collect a career-high five steals to rally UTC from a 41-33 first-half hole.
"When I'm out there, I'm just playing," said the soft-spoken McLean. "Tonight was just my night."
Not certain he believed anyone on his team believed it was the Mocs' night at intermission, McCall admitted with a grin, "Obviously, I was pretty animated the first couple of minutes of my halftime speech."
Just as obviously, McCall is molding a team in which everyone has a role and everyone understands his role is important because the head ball coach makes sure of it.
Which is why when asked to describe the importance of Nat Dixon, who scored all of one point in 19 minutes, McCall said: "Nat's role is to move his feet and really defend, and he relishes that role. He impacts winning."
This team figures to win a lot going forward, hopefully enough to impact crowds down the road to move somewhere north of 5,000 by February.
"This team," McCall said, "has a chance to be special."
And to be fair, those fans who did show up sounded pretty special to the second-year UTC coach, who said of the crowd, "By far the best atmosphere we've had (this year). Not even close."
But regardless of how or how not special the crowd was, the outcome was still more than a little special to those old enough to remember the old days of Marshall-UTC, such as former school chancellor Fred Obear.
Said Obear at game's end, his usual warm, wide smile filling his face: "For the old-timers, this is still sweet."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.