Center Jeremy Saffore has traveled to Elon more times than anybody in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball program except fellow fifth-year senior Jeff Smith, coach John Shulman and assistant coach Brent Jolly.
Saffore knows how small 1,500-seat Alumni Gym is – the 7-footer could almost touch the rafters if he really tried – and he’s experienced intense games and gut-punching losses there as well.
The Mocs will be there again tonight to face the Phoenix at 6 in the third Southern Conference game of the season for each team.
“It’s just a tough place to play,” Saffore said. “Maybe it’s all the travel. Maybe it could be because of how small it is. Maybe it’s what they do. But like here in our house, it’s tough to beat us at home.”
A Mocs victory in their first SoCon road game would improve their league record to 3-0. And they were picked third in the North Division behind Appalachian State and Western Carolina, which already lost to UTC.
“A 3-0 start would make a statement to the league that we’re about business again,” guard Ricky Taylor said. “It didn’t go our way last year, but we’re back to the old Chattanooga. We could send a big message to the league.”
The last three games between UTC and Elon (4-5, 0-2) in the cozy North Carolina confines have come down to the last possession.
Last year, Elon won 83-80. The year before, Elon won 86-85 in double-overtime, and the year before that, UTC won 57-56. Also in the mix of close games are Elon’s 60-57 win in the 2008 Southern Conference tournament and a 79-78 UTC home win in early 2009.
Elon swept the two-game series last season, including an 82-63 win in UTC’s McKenzie Arena, which can seat about 10 times as many fans as could pack what is termed the Nest.
Guard Chris Long feasted on UTC by scoring 25 points in the first 2009-10 matchup – including 4-of-10 3-point shooting and going 11-of-12 from the free-throw line. He followed that with 20 points against UTC by hitting 5 of 10 3-pointers.
“Chris is a warrior and the quarterback of our team,” Elon coach Matt Matheny said. “I wish he could guarantee me numbers like that, but it’s about quarterbacking. He has an ability to create shots and open up the floor for other people.
“In those [UTC] games, he got some shots to go down.”
Elon has been a pest to UTC ever since the Mocs welcomed the Phoenix to the SoCon in December of 2003. Shulman then was an assistant to Jeff Lebo, who took the Mocs to Elon for the Phoenix’s first SoCon game and walked away an 88-70 loser.
“You can’t put that one on me,” joked Shulman, who is 3-3 as a head coach against the Phoenix.
“It just feels like we’re 0-6 there because it’s always a grueling game,” Shulman said. “Like when we lost in double OT when Ty [Patterson] missed three free throws, and last year we were up by one with 40 seconds to go.
“The losses there have been excruciating. Maybe that’s why it seems that we haven’t had success there.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP