The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team had to settle for spectator status last April as the UTC men celebrated their National Invitation Tournament championship with a parade downtown.
Now, just as last year’s national postseason tournament run was a long shot for coach Dan Earl’s Mocs, second-year head coach Deandra Schirmer’s Mocs have quite the road ahead if they want to do something similar — but there’s a chance, and that’s all they can ask for.
The Mocs qualified for the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament due to their Southern Conference regular-season title (the 21st in program history), and they left Wednesday morning for Fargo, North Dakota, where UTC (20-1) will face North Dakota State in a first-round matchup at 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. The Bison (28-4) — who won the Summit League regular-season title but lost the league tournament final and were one of the first four at-large teams left out of the 68-team field for the NCAA Division I tourney — are one of the four No. 1 seeds for the 32-team WBIT.
After practice Tuesday, UTC assistant coach Mallory Odell reminded the team to pack “for a few days,” as a win in Fargo would send the Mocs to New York in some capacity for the second round Sunday, either to face fourth-seeded Columbia (20-8) or St. John’s (22-11).
For now, though, UTC’s focus is fully on North Dakota State, and for good reason.