OK, so it wasn’t the start everybody expected.
McCallie coach Dan Wadley’s plan for the 2010-11 basketball season included the infusion of two point guards with different skill sets, both with the ability to lead a talented Blue Tornado team deep into the postseason.
But any dreams of an undefeated season had a slight derailment, as the combination of Atlanta transfer C.J. Reese and senior Cordell James wasn’t enough to get McCallie over the first-game hump. The Tornado fell 55-51 to Tyner in a Hall of Fame game at GPS last Tuesday.
The two combined for 28 points and four assists, but McCallie lost a double-digit second-half lead. Both think the game was an eye-opener for a team with its sights set on a state championship – something that hasn’t happened for a Division II school in Chattanooga since the public-private split in 1998.
After McCallie defeated East Ridge 79-60 on Thursday, Wadley agreed that the opening-game loss did a lot to “relax the team.