The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team began its Southern Conference tournament week with a tradition.
The tradition, at least when the tournament is played in McKenzie Arena, is a 7:30 a.m. practice in the cold, old gym of Arts & Sciences, where the Mocs concentrated for an hour on nothing but defense.
“I knew it was coming,” point guard Keegan Bell said. “I remember it from my sit-out year, and we didn’t do it last year. I know Coach [John Shulman] is a superstitious guy, and I knew a CSAS practice was coming.
“I don’t know if I can tell you our secret, but I can tell you that I don’t know if a ball was out.”
UTC is 2-0 in tournament weeks that begin with a defensive practice at CSAS. The other correlation is that UTC is 6-0 in the two years the SoCon tournament has been played in McKenzie Arena.