Mark WiedmerKNOXVILLE - One by one, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball coach Matt McCall made his way down the Mocs bench Friday night, emphatically pointing his right index finger at each player, whether they actually made a statistical contribution to this 82-69 road victory over big brother Tennessee or not.
But if you think he was telling his team that this was just one game, that No. 6 North Carolina beckons inside the Dean Dome on Sunday, you'd be wrong.
"I just wanted to make sure I told everyone, 'Great job,'" McCall said. "A great job by everyone. The coaching staff, the scout team, the starters, even the guys who didn't play. Just a great effort all the way around."
Every pretty decent mid-major has the ability to upset a Power Five conference school. Especially early in the season. Your shots fall, theirs don't and suddenly you have an unexpected victory to energize every other mid-major willing to schedule such semi-Goliaths.
But this wasn't one of those upsets. Maybe that terrific trio of early road wins at Georgia, Illinois and Dayton were those kinds of wins last year, boosted by the element of surprise, the three of them ultimately won by a combined eight points.
Friday night, however, was the better team winning a road game. Make that the much better team.
Or as losing coach Rick Barnes said afterward: "We said coming in it was going to be a real tough opener, and I wasn't surprised by anything. We got beat by a good basketball team tonight."
Indeed, the Mocs outshot the Volunteers from the field (46.6 percent to 32.8 percent), from the 3-point line (27.8 percent to 6.3 percent, which means UT missed 15 of its 16 triples), handed out eight more assists, collected six more steals and committed four fewer turnovers.
"We've talked a lot about the fact that we're not re-creating last year," McCall said of last season's 29-win masterpiece. "We told them to rebound, to get lost in the competition. We didn't flinch. We approached it the right way."
Certainly part of this is a UTC bunch starting five seniors against a Big Orange squad overrun with freshmen and sophomores, including the gifted guard Kwe Parker, who didn't play after injuring a foot on Wednesday.
Even McCall was quick to note the difference Parker might have made for the home team, especially on defense, where he is regarded as an elite defender.
But as UTC senior Justin Tuoyo noted after barely eclipsing teammate Tre McLean in points (22 to 21) and rebounds (11 to 10): "Every game on the schedule we feel we can win. We came out a little slow, they punched us in the mouth, then we punched back. We've got six seniors, great newcomers and a great coaching staff."
He's right on all counts, even if it appears that the sixth of those seniors, Chuck Ester, already may have been lost for the season with a knee injury.
"We've got veteran guys, guys who've played a lot of college basketball. This was a great night, both for our city and our school."
It would be nice to enjoy this 13-point victory over the Vols for more than a day or two, to enjoy it and savor it and bask in its glow for a bit. Instead, the lordly Tar Heels await Sunday afternoon, their five NCAA championship banners hanging from the roof of the Dean Smith Center, along with jerseys honoring every UNC great from Rosenbluth to Cunningham to Ford to Jordan.
"We're excited for these opportunities," McCall said. "We got a great win here against Tennessee. Now we get to get on a bus and get ready to play what is arguably the greatest college basketball program of all time."
Said Tuoyo, who grew up a Duke fan: "We're going in there to win."
Were that to happen, it would come as little surprise to UT freshman guard Jordan Bone, who led the Vols with 21 points.
"They're very mature," Bone said of the Mocs. "They know how to win."
If Friday night is any indication, they now know how to win at a Power Five school with the absence of drama, which just might make for a quite dramatic Sunday afternoon inside the home of what is arguably the greatest college basketball program of all-time.
But win or lose that one, this one was something worth celebrating for far more than a day, and perhaps all the way to March, when wins such as this can last a lifetime.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com