Chelsey Shumpert After beating East Tennessee State in overtime of a thrilling Southern Conference championship game Sunday, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team rolled directly into spring break and got some much-needed rest to start this week.
Now it’s time to get back to work.
The No. 17 Mocs (29-3) were given three days off by coach Jim Foster, and most players were able to go home for a few days to spend time with family and friends. But Thursday afternoon at the Lawson Practice Facility a seemingly energized group of players prepared to resume practicing in advance of the NCAA tournament selection show Monday and the start of play in the tournament in a week.
“We still have to get after it,” sophomore guard Chelsey Shumpert said. “We had three days off, so we had a little rest. Today we scheduled practice, which we should have. Now we just have to get after it again the best we can.”
Foster said the extended break coupled with school being out this week provided a good reason to take three days off before resuming practice.
“I don’t think having a break matters one way or the other except that they had spring break,” he said. “Then it becomes a bigger deal. If we were in the structure of school, I don’t know that we would have given them off until today.
“But the fact that they got to be on their own or go home and do some stuff that’s hard for them to do in the season, that made it an easy decision.”
Until Monday night, the Mocs will be preparing for an unknown opponent. With an RPI of 20, UTC is expected to get a high seed in the NCAA tournament. It currently is projected as a No. 7 seed playing 10th-seeded Oklahoma State in Tallahassee, Fla., in the Albany Regional by ESPN women’s bracketology expert Charlie Creme.
But those are just guesses and UTC is just focused on getting better this week, and Foster said the goal for the next few days is working on fundementals and getting back into the regimen of practice and preparing for competition.
“I think we should just work on ourselves right now,” Shumpert said. “Getting our screens right and getting back fresh and refresh our memories and stuff like that. Just working our ourselves is really important. Then we’ll figure out who we play after that.”
The team will gather with fans Monday night at Jefferson’s restaurant to find out where and whom they will play in the NCAA tournament. The party will be open to the public and will begin at 6 p.m. with the team and fans watching the one-hour selection show on ESPN starting at 7 p.m.
Jefferson’s is located at 618 Georgia Ave., and there will be no admission fee.
But for now, sophomore post player Jasmine Joyner is excited to get better and improve upon her SoCon tournament performance that earned her most outstanding player honors. She and her teammates want to keep getting better and be ready for whichever team stands in the way of their goals.
“I’m ready to get back to work,” Joyner said. “Coach John (McCray) before practice showed me a few things that I need to work on. There’s always things to work on.
“I missed my team, and I’m ready to get to work and make some history in the NCAA tournament.”
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.