Omar Wattad heard the final buzzer, dropped his head, and pulled the bottom of jersey up to his lip.
It helped quiet the quivering.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach John Shulman respectfully went through the hand-shake line following a 61-52 loss to Furman in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament.
The coach gazed at the floor with each step as he trudged off of a basketball court for the final time this season.
UTC’s year concluded with a 16-16 overall record, a 12-6 record against Southern Conference foes, and an early exit from a tournament that grants access to the NCAA tournament.
“It has been and up-and-down year, starting off hot in the conference and then struggling, then winning the North,” point guard Keegan Bell said. “Winning the North was one of our goals.
“Another was going to the NCAA tournament. We came up short.”
Only one of the 12 teams that began this tournament will advance to the NCAA tournament. But that’s no consolation for Bell – whose eyes were red and watery after the game – Shulman or any of the Mocs.
UTC could have been that one team. Everything seemed to be in place prior to tipoff.
They earned a bye that has historically been necessary to advance. They were 7-1 in the regular season against their half of the bracket and they were playing on their home court.
After tipoff, the game seemed to be going like other UTC wins this season in which they never played great but pulled out a win in the end. The game had that feel when UTC trailed by just three with 8:47 to play.
But four minutes later, they trailed by 10 and tears, not cheers, were in their immediate future.
“We battled throughout the game, but missed dunks, layups and free throws,” Shulman said. “I think we had a really bad night at a bad time.”