The trip to Charleston had an inauspicious start before the bus even pulled away from McKenzie Arena.
Sophomore guard Jasper Williams locked his keys in his room and delayed departure. Coach John Shulman just shook his head when he heard the news.
This Southern Conference journey couldn’t go any worse than the last time the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team played outside of McKenzie. The Mocs lost three straight to cap a four-game skid that started with a 90-66 humbling by the College of Charleston on Jan. 16.
“We’ll see where we are with another test,” Shulman said. “We’ve taken this test before and failed it. Let’s see where we stand right now.”
The Mocs (13-10, 5-5) will face Charleston (14-8, 9-2) tonight at 7 in their first visit to two-year-old Carolina First Arena. Then they’ll play at The Citadel (10-12, 4-6) at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“I didn’t even know Charleston had a city until this summer when I went down there with Amy and the boys,” Shulman said. “I thought Charleston was a hotel room, the John Kresse Arena, The Citadel and the coliseum.”
The Cougars crushed UTC just 48 hours after the Mocs needed a buzzer-beater to topple The Citadel. That was the precursor to disaster.
Charleston exposed the Mocs as early-season over-achievers by scoring 90 points, shooting 50 percent from the floor and leading by at least 10 points — and as many as 26 — throughout the second half.
“They exposed us pretty bad,” Ridge McKeither said. “We weren’t together; we didn’t have trust in one another. They broke us down and beat us pretty bad.”
The Mocs had been relying on offense to carry them through a six-game win streak leading up the Charleston contest. But they shot 39 percent and had 18 turnovers.
“Sixty-six points is enough to win a game,” Shulman said. “And people were saying that we were really good on defense and rebounding, but I didn’t believe it and look what happened.”
The Mocs claim to be a much different team now. They provided some evidence with wins over Western Carolina and Appalachian State last week.
“I think we’re playing better defense. We’re pressuring the ball more,” junior DeAntre Jefferson said. “We’re boxing out more, and we’re starting to get an identity of a tough-nosed team.”
For McKeither, this is personal because he spent all but five minutes of the first matchup on the bench.
“I watched them beat my team at home, and I was offended by that,” McKeither said. “I’m taking it personal to get at them.”