Mark WiedmerIf you're a fan of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic program, this past weekend couldn't have gotten off to a better start than Friday afternoon's win by the UTC women's basketball team at Rutgers followed by Friday night's win by the Mocs men's basketball team at Tennessee.
Or as longtime UTC supporter Buddy Sundstrom said Sunday evening, no doubt emboldened by Friday's results as he watched the men take on No. 6 North Carolina during a UTC watch party at Pin Strikes on Lee Highway: "We beat Tennessee on Friday night. Maybe we can pull off another upset today."
Unfortunately, what followed that magical 82-69 win inside Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena through the rest of the weekend wouldn't make any Mocs Maniac happy.
It began with Saturday afternoon's home football loss to Wofford, a crucial Southern Conference game that should have drawn a far bigger crowd than the announced attendance of 8,750 at Finley Stadium.
The SoCon favorites at season's dawn, a team that won its first two games by a combined score of 100-0 against overmatched Shorter and Presbyterian, the Mocs are now in danger of missing the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs altogether.
Now 8-2 heading into Saturday's regular-season finale against the Football Bowl Subdivision's top-ranked Alabama, UTC probably has to hope that the FCS playoff selection committee is willing to pick at least three SoCon schools for its 24-team playoff or the Mocs might well lose out to either Samford or Wofford, with The Citadel receiving the league's automatic bid as SoCon champ.
And while the football team receiving a playoff bid is certainly more important than what happened against North Carolina late Sunday afternoon, that 97-57 loss to the No. 6 Tar Heels certainly took a little shine off Friday's fantastic beginning.
Not that it began that way for the few proud Mocs fans who made their way to Pin Strikes for the watch party.
In addition to several UTC employees and Sundstrom, who was the Mocs basketball manager during the 1963, '64 and '65 seasons, there were a handful of other fans, including students Tia Hyman and Samaria Grandberry of Memphis.
"Free bowling and watching our Mocs play, what could be better?" grinned Hyman, a senior marketing major.
Asked if they knew any of the players, Grandberry, a junior majoring in dietetics, replied, "No, but we see them around campus. It's pretty cool. When I saw they were going to beat UT, I did a double-take."
No UTC fan should see too much to be concerned about in that 40-point final margin against North Carolina. No. 1, the Tar Heels are really, really good. They may even prove better than last year's national runners-up. As coach Roy Williams told ESPN prior the start of the UTC game, his 2008 Tar Heels lost in the Final Four then returned to college basketball's biggest stage a year later and won it all. This team could do the same.
Second, it was always asking a bit much of these Mocs to win an emotional game on Friday night against big brother UT, get back on a bus to Chapel Hill and face the Tar Heels inside the Dean Dome on Sunday.
Hyman was right to observe at halftime, the Mocs down 44-33, "We don't have to play with pressure, we have nothing to lose."
But UTC didn't have much in the tank over the game's final 20 minutes, either.
So Mocs Nation should save its concern for the football program, and perhaps the women's basketball team, which begins a stunning stretch of games that includes home contests tonight (Florida) and Thursday (Indiana) before a weekend trip to Louisville for three games in three days - against Lafayette College of Easton, Pa., on Saturday, Bowling Green on Sunday and the No. 5 Cardinals on Monday.
If they somehow emerge from those mine fields with a 6-1 record, they deserve to be ranked not just in the Top 25 polls but the top 10.
At the close of the North Carolina loss, UTC coach Matt McCall said of his team's opening weekend on the road: "I told our guys not to let today take away the joy of what we did Friday night at Tennessee."
Or as Sundstrom said, his words music to the ears of more than a few longtime Mocs Maniacs, "Anytime we can beat Tennessee in anything, I'm happy as heck."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.