University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris was like a lot of people this past weekend, watching protests throughout the country that turned from peaceful to violent during the aftermath of the senseless death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Then he quickly thought of his players who are scattered across the nation, and he picked up his phone.
“I’ve touched base with all of them, and I’ve told them that there are some people out there with really good intentions and there are some others with some really sinister motivations,” Paris said Monday afternoon, “and it can be difficult sometimes to tell the difference between those two. I’ve told our guys to stay focused on what they have coming up and what their goals are and what their next steps are.
“I’m trying to support them from afar, and I just want them to be safe and careful about who they’re around.”
UTC won 20 games this past season, but that now seems distant after the coronavirus outbreak and the recent unrest nationally. Four of his Mocs players have remained in Chattanooga amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and he said a fifth is scheduled to arrive this week.