Wiedmer: Committee treats Mocs better than most

Members of the UTC men's basketball team and their fans erupt in cheers at the school's University Center as they hear their selection, seed and opponent for the NCAA tournament on Sunday night. The Mocs play Indiana on Thursday night in Ames, Iowa.

By Mark Wiedmer March 14, 2016 5 min read

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Jamie Eubanks and Katie Denson stand with a Bigfoot Racing truck.

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103.7 The Buzz held their BBQ Festival for the sixth year benefiting the Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial. Contestants cooked their prize entries and attendees enjoyed sampling. Local music acts entertained through the day with country music star Ty Herndon performing a grand finale.

Mark Wiedmer

Let’s start with the sublime. According to ESPN’s Rece Davis, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Matt McCall is “the only coach in the field who made a shot to finish off a GameDay demonstration as a (student) manager.”

This reportedly happened during his college days at Florida, and while that alone may not be enough to deliver the Mocs a victory in their East Regional first-round game against Indiana, it is more free publicity for a UTC program that’s already making some history by earning a fairly fair No. 12 seed against the fifth-seeded Hoosiers.

(Side note: Maybe the committee really did pay attention to those wins at Dayton and Georgia.)

And before everyone automatically advances Indiana to a likely second-round matchup with No. 4 seed Kentucky, remember the Mocs have the depth, savvy and talent to upset the Hoosiers if big man Justin Tuoyo can stay out of foul trouble against Indiana freshman counterpart Thomas Bryant and UTC’s backcourt can slow 77-year-old point guard Yogi Ferrell, who has been around Bloomington since before they cut the bottoms out of the peach baskets that used to serve as goals.

But because the sublime always leads to the ridiculous regarding NCAA tournament fields, we’ll start with Monmouth being left out in favor of Tulsa, which not only lost twice to Memphis but is coached by Frank Haith, who has placed two previous programs – Miami and Missouri – in the NCAA’s investigative crosshairs.