If Matt McCall was hoping to ease into his first season as men’s basketball coach for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, those dreams went by the wayside pretty quickly.
The Mocs’ 2015-16 schedule features 10 games against opponents who participated in postseason tournaments, including three NCAA tournament foes.
After a Nov. 6 exhibition against NCAA Division III opponent Covenant College, the Mocs open their season Nov. 13 at Georgia. Also on the schedule are games at NCAA tournament participants Iowa State and Dayton; Illinois, which played in the National Invitation Tournament; and Louisiana-Monroe, which played in the College Basketball Invitational.
A highlight of UTC’s 15-game home slate is a Dec. 22 contest against Radford, which also played in the CBI during a 22-win season in 2014-15.
Southern Conference play begins with a Jan. 2 trip to The Citadel. For the second straight season, SoCon teams will play an 18-game league schedule, with each of the Mocs’ nine opponents coming to McKenzie Arena, where they were 15-2 overall and 8-1 in conference play last season.