UTC Mocs logoUTC beat writer Gene Henley’s 5 Takeaways from the Mocs’ 56-46 win over Wofford on Thursday:
1. Winning without Tuoyo: For most of the game, while the Mocs were battling in a physical game against the Terriers, the 6-foot-10 center had become one of the world’s tallest bike riders, as he rode a stationary bike to remain warm while sidelined with foul trouble. He had two fouls seven minutes into the first half, picked up his third at the 16:28 mark of the second half in defending a 3-point shot and received his fourth two minutes after checking back into the game with 11:27 remaining on an over-the-back call. To beat the first-place team on the road without your biggest rim protector playing a key role statistically is huge.
2. Killin’ Cochran: There was no question that the Mocs had to defend Wofford guard Karl Cochran differently than they did the first time, when he scored 27 of his 33 points in the final 12 minutes of the 68-64 win at UTC on Jan. 5. Coach Will Wade started Tre McLean on the 6-2 guard, while Ronrico White, Greg Pryor and Casey Jones also spent time on him at some point or another. The different bodies bumping into him eventually wore down Cochran, whose shots were short in the second half and who made only one jumper in the final 20 minutes and two for the game.
3. For a day, excitement was back: I walked into Benjamin Johnson Arena 70 minutes before game time. Getting to my seat, I watched the UTC team’s movements. Eric “3-Rob” Robertson was smiling and laughing, a norm for him. The team seemed very loose. That only continued as the game went on, as the team played with just enough emotion (not going overboard), and just flat-out enjoyed the game. I think that if this game had been at McKenzie, Casey might have gone crowd-surfing after his big dunk with 1:20 remaining that all but put the game away. They have to keep that up.
4. Wofford students came out: I’ve marveled at some of the student sections I’ve encountered on my first year on the beat — namely Mercer’s and, Thursday night, Wofford’s. The student section extended about 25 rows up, and they were loud. The most impressive part to me, though, was how very few, if any, left even after it was clear that UTC was going to win, and after most of the other Wofford supporters had already headed to the exits. I saw some hanging around well after the game ended — presumably trying to piece together what had just happened to their team.
5. Cheering for the refs, really? I didn’t think I’d ever heard such, but during the game there was a lady behind me cheering for referee Teddy “TV” Valentine for portions of the game. After a foul called on Tuoyo defending a 3-pointer (which I thought was an awful call), Tuoyo ran away in disbelief. Valentine glared at him for a minute or so after making the call, which was Tuoyo’s third just a couple minutes into the second half. Meanwhile, the lady behind me was imploring TV Teddy to give Tuoyo a technical: “Don’t you let him show you up, Teddy!” This was after cheering for calls that Valentine made — against the Mocs, of course — in the first half.
Whatever works, I guess.