The Roundhouse suddenly has become a funhouse.
Or perhaps it’s become a madhouse, depending on the perspective.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s last two men’s basketball home games have been among the most exciting regular-season games in the seven-year tenure of coach John Shulman.
The Mocs’ 111-110 double-overtime win against UNC Greensboro on Thursday in McKenzie Arena produced the most combined points of any NCAA game this season on the Division I level.
“I’ll bet there were a lot of people who were at the game who either missed work today because they couldn’t figure out what happened, or were drinking heavily afterwards,” Shulman joked Friday as his team prepared to face Elon tonight at 6.
“That was the madhouse last night. As a coach, if you watch that game, you probably deserve to go to the nuthouse. We may be the first team that gives up 200 points.”
Thursday night wasn’t much different, just longer, than the Mocs’ previous home game. In that one the Mocs beat the highly regarded College of Charleston 91-88. That game featured UTC coming back from a 10-point deficit and Cougars guard Andrew Goudelock doing a Stephen Curry impersonation.
“That was an entertaining basketball game and I’m glad it was on TV,” Charleston coach Bobby Cremins said afterward. “People saw some really good basketball and some really good players.”
UTC’s following two games, both on the road, were far from exhibitions of expertise. UTC lost at Wofford and Furman by a combined 58 points. Those games were much more maddening than fun.
But UTC injected excitement back into McKenzie Arena — the Roundhouse — on Thursday. The Mocs gained a 20-point lead in the second half and then did a Houdini act by making the lead shrink to one in five minutes.
The fun reappeared when UTC’s Keegan Bell hit a 3-pointer at the end of regulation. Madness returned when Trevis Simpson tied it at the end of overtime.
Sadness set in for the fans when UNCG took a seven-point lead in the second overtime with less than two minutes to play.
Yet the fun and insanity continued as UTC forced two turnovers and converted them to points and the lead. The only thing that could have made the game crazier would have been if the Spartans had hit a three-quarters-court shot to win.
“I hope it’s fun for everybody else,” Shulman said late Thursday. “It’s grueling and it tugs at your heart. I know what’s on the line and I want something special for our team.
“Maybe everybody would have had as much fun if we’d won by 24.”
But then neither Ricky Taylor nor Bell would have set career highs, and Taylor’s 41 points is the third-best outing by a UTC player in the program’s Division I history.
“I couldn’t sleep last night because I’d always dreamed of a 40-point game,” Taylor said. “It came to reality. I was thinking, ‘Did it really happen?'”
Elon rolls into the Roundhouse today, and Phoenix coach Matt Matheny has little idea of what to expect based on recent performances of both teams.
“We’re still looking for consistency, but we’ve had some stretches of really good basketball,” Matheny said. “Chris Long has had a great stretch, and he’s been playing with a great deal of confidence. He’s been a consistent leader.”
Long has played in the Roundhouse before, but it wasn’t such a funhouse then.
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