Wes Moore isn’t sugar-coating the state of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team as it opens its season tonight against East Tennessee State.
The Lady Mocs are young, short on depth and face a very difficult nonconference schedule to start the season.
“In some ways we’re going into some of these games that are going to be like a sword fight, and we’re going with a pocket knife, so it’s a challenge,” said Moore, who is entering his 13th season at UTC.
The Lady Mocs open at McKenzie Arena tonight against ETSU, which is coming off the best season in program history, a season that included an 85-61 win over UTC in Johnson City. UTC visits No. 4 Tennessee on Monday and plays at No. 19 Georgia next Friday. The Lady Mocs also host No. 9 Kentucky on Dec. 11.
The Lady Bucs play an aggressive style that features a lot of double-teams and traps and produces numerous turnovers and fastbreak opportunities. UTC struggled at times against that kind of pressure last season.
“They’re going to get after us, fly around, put a lot of pressure and gamble and get in the passing lanes,” Moore said, “and I really don’t know yet how we’ll handle that.”
The only returning starters for UTC are guards Tenisha Townsend and Kayla Christopher. Forward Whitney Hood was an off-and-on starter during her two seasons at Clemson before transferring.
The other projected starters are Bailey Dewart and Kiara Smith, both of whom are playing this season on bad knees.
Christopher, the only UTC player voted on to the Southern Conference coaches’ preseason all-conference team, is the Lady Mocs’ top returning scorer. As a freshman last season she averaged 9.3 points per game.
Townsend is UTC’s most veteran player with two full seasons in Moore’s system. The junior said she’s eager to finally get started.
“All these long practices and practicing against the guys, it’s making us better,” Townsend said, “but I’m ready to go out there and compete.”