For a team that started the 2014-15 season with a lot of questions, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team proved formidable, capable of competing with anyone. But they enter the off season still looking for the spark to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
The Mocs finished the season with a record of 29-4, posted wins over Top 10 teams in Tennessee and Stanford, went unbeaten in Southern Conference action and achieved program-bests in national ranking (No. 17 in the Associated Press women’s Top 25) and NCAA tournament seeding (No. 7 in the Spokane Region). But they fell short once again in the first round of the Big Dance, losing 51-40 to 11th-seeded Pittsburgh in Knoxville in their opening-round game.
“Overall I feel like we accomplished something this season,” sophomore guard Chelsey Shumpert said last week. “I feel like we proved a lot of people wrong. I wish it would have ended differently, but you can’t win all of them. At the end of the day, one team gets to win the whole thing and it wasn’t us. Maybe next year.”
UTC coach Jim Foster thinks that the disappointing loss to Pitt after so much success can inspire his players as they look to build on one of the best seasons in UTC history.
“I think the right people in the room sort of understood and felt pain,” Foster said of the mood in the locker room after the loss. “When your season ends that way and you’ve got eligibility left, it’s a great motivational opportunity for you to want to feel different. And you’re sort of in charge of that. Now you have to get to work.”
In his second season in Chattanooga, Foster was relatively happy with how his team came together after losing five key seniors from the 2013-14 squad, followed by the loss of sophomore Aryanna Gilbert to a season-ending knee injury in early December.
“I thought for a young team we had a great year,” he said. “I may have a general view of what can happen if certain things take place. Given [the loss of Gilbert], one of two returning starters from a team that had graduated a lot of players that had played a lot of minutes, I thought this group did a terrific job.”
This season the Mocs’ success was based on both strong defense — they finished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation in scoring defense by allowing 50.5 points per game — and offense, ranked No. 22 in NCAA Division I in field-goal percentage. Sophomore post player Jasmine Joyner set UTC and SoCon records with 132 blocked shots, even as the team committed the lowest number of fouls in the country.
“We had the flexibility of changing how we played a little bit with the combination of players that we ended up having play,” Foster said. “We had that flexibility, and that allowed us to be successful.”
Looking ahead to next season, the Mocs only lose two players to graduation — seniors Ka’Vonne Towns and Destiny Bramblett — and return four starters. However, UTC will add redshirt freshman Ashlyn Wert and transfer Queen Alford to the mix, along with freshmen Molly Melton of the Webb School in Knoxville and Nakeia Burks of Huntsville (Ala.) High School, and perhaps another signee before the season starts.
“To me, it’s going to be a very, very competitive gym with a lot of jobs up for grabs,” Foster said. “Just because you started this year doesn’t mean you’re going to start next year.”
While Foster and his staff will expect more from all of the returning players, he said he’s looking for freshman Keiana Gilbert as well as Alford to step up and give the Mocs more opportunities on offense.
“I want her to be come more well-rounded, because she has the ability to create her own shot,” he said of Gilbert. “I think Queen does and I think (Gilbert) does, and all of a sudden you’re a better team because you don’t have to depend on the offense to score all your points. You have players that can go make something happen.”
Alford, who sat out last season after transferring from Jacksonville, could bring a new level of energy to the team. Foster said as one of 10 siblings, she brings an “edge” to the court for UTC that her teammates already have seen in practice.
“Queen does have an edge,” Shumpert said. “She’s not always the nicest person, I do know that. When we’re playing pick-up, she’s always aggressive. If we’re not going as hard as we can, she’s always the one that’s like ‘Come on, guys, we’ve got to pick it up.’
“Queen definitely has a chip on her shoulder, and I think that towards the conference championship and NCAA’s if we make it she’ll be there for us.”
That chip will be needed as the Mocs look to meet, and hopefully exceed, what will surely be heightened expectations next season.
“The bar has been raised,” Foster said. “The schedule will get even more difficult, and a deeper and more-talented team should create more competitive practices which should allow for improvement.
“We want our players who aren’t healthy to get healthy, and then we’ll be together from the third week of June on. But between now and then, they need to be getting better.”
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.