Allison McCall, the wife of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball coach Matt McCall, has taken notice of the weather heading into the Mocs’ upcoming weekend road trip.
Even if the players really haven’t.
“She’s the one concerned,” her husband said Tuesday. “She actually woke me up in the middle of the night with it on her mind.”
It could be a long weekend for a number of the teams in the Southern Conference. UTC has its longest road trip of the conference season this week, with games at UNC Greensboro on Thursday and Virginia Military Institute on Saturday.
“It is what it is,” McCall said. “Our focus is on Greensboro. The good thing about our guys is they won’t be too concerned about the weather. We’ll trust our administration as far as when we should leave.”
Samford – UTC’s travel partner in conference play – has the reverse, with VMI on Thursday and UNCG on Saturday. East Tennessee State and Western Carolina, who host Mercer and The Citadel this weekend, have snow in today’s forecast that could be washed out by rain Thursday.
The forecast in Greensboro, N.C., calls for a wintry mix and 1-3 inches of snow Friday. That pales in comparison to the Lexington, Va., forecast of 5-8 inches of snow for Friday and 3-5 more on Saturday.
“I’m packing two or three pairs of sweats,” Mocs center Justin Tuoyo said. “I know there’s going to be a lot of snow. We’re not looking forward to it, but we know it’s going to be a long trip and there’s two key wins we need to get, so we’re all just going to try to go ahead, deal with it and be ready for it.”
A number of conference games in the 2013-14 season had to be rescheduled due to snow.
McCall is planning a practice this morning before getting on the road. The trip to Greensboro shouldn’t be too much of a problem – it’s the trip from there to Lexington that will be a concern.
“We’re just going to focus on Thursday, make sure we get there, get that game played and get ready for the next one,” McCall said.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.