The last time the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team started a season this well, the Houston Cougars’ “Phi Slama Jama” duo of Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler was a thing.
So were Members Only jackets.
Basically, it’s been a while, but the Mocs say they don’t care about their record – they’re just focused on playing and winning.
The Mocs improved to 17-3 with a 73-60 win Thursday night at UNC Greensboro, and now they’re 6-1 in the Southern Conference – good enough for first place as they near the midway point of the conference schedule. Their overall record is the best start since the 1982-83 season, when they opened 26-3.
UTC’s next chance to add to its win total will have to wait, though. The game scheduled for today at Virginia Military Institute was postponed due to severe inclement weather in Lexington, Va. Reports indicated the region could receive up to 13 inches of snow.
The schools and the league will work together to determine a makeup date. But UTC players are simply focusing on the next game, which at this point won’t be until a week from today at Samford.
The schedule – and the number of wins and losses – aren’t their concern.
“That’s what we are now?” senior guard Eric Robertson said when told of the team’s mark. “Yeah, that’s pretty good.”
The most recent win came courtesy of a dominating second half in which UTC outscored the Spartans 44-25. The Mocs made 12 of their 23 attempts from the floor in the final 20 minutes while limiting the hosts to 33 percent shooting. But even when the Spartans led by 10 points early in the second half, the Mocs – as has been typical this season – didn’t panic.
“We were down, but we had been there before,” center Justin Tuoyo said. “We had been down a lot this year, so we knew we had to stay together and grind it out through everything.”
The second half was a far cry from the first 20 minutes, when UNCG – led by freshman guard Francis Alonso – shot 57 percent from the floor and netted 5 of 9 3-point attempts. Alonso had 12 points in the first half and finished with 19.
The Mocs finished the game with 11 turnovers, seven of them before halftime.
“We had some bad turnovers in the first half,” UTC coach Matt McCall said. “We just weren’t playing the game the right way. For whatever it was, we settled in, and we started playing and were able to get a good victory. I walked in there after the game, and I said, ‘Winning is hard. You guys were prepared to win the game, and you deserved to win the game because of your preparation, so enjoy it. Enjoy having success.’
“It’s another step along the journey. You’re trying to chase something right now, and every single step is going to be difficult. There’s no easy steps to a championship. There’s none. And you have to take the next step and focus on that step. When you complete that step, be excited about it, and then we’ll move on to the next step.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.