Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Mocs fans show enthusiasm as Coach John Shulman’s team stretches the lead to 20 points over Furman on a ‘blackout’ Monday night at McKenzie Arena.No active college basketball coach in America may hate zone defense more than the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s John Shulman. Zones are for wimps and whiners and guys who tie pale pink sweaters around their necks while sipping triple caramel lattes through straws.
Real men play man-to-man and only man-to-man after chewing on light bulbs during timeouts.
Or as Shulman noted following Monday night’s 75-59 victory over Furman, “A zone’s OK, I guess, if you’re long, rangy and athletic. We aren’t long, rangy and athletic.”
Yet three years ago, when Shulman was attempting to encourage point guard Keegan Bell to bring his considerable talent to the Mocs after he decided to leave Vanderbilt, the coach intently listened to Bell’s fascination with the matchup zone.
“I kept saying, ‘Let’s just try a little zone,” Bell said after scoring 14 points and handing out four assists in 38 minutes Monday. “He said he’d consider it. Once I got here I decided he’d probably lied to me.”