After hearing bad news about one of its players last week, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga received a bit of good news Friday.
Six feet and 10 inches of it.
UTC head coach Matt McCall and the men’s basketball program learned early Friday that the NCAA has granted sophomore forward Makinde London a hardship waiver, allowing him to play for the Mocs this season, beginning tonight at Tennessee at 7. This comes a week after the team learned that senior forward Chuck Ester was lost indefinitely due to a knee injury.
London, a Nashville native, transferred from Xavier to UTC in the offseason due to a family illness. The sophomore, who has three seasons of eligibility remaining, was a four-star prospect coming out of high school. He played in 25 games for the Muskateers, averaging 1.6 points and 1.3 rebounds per game in 5.3 minutes, seeing action in 18 contests.
A good 3-point shooter, London was 7-for-18 from deep last season, with all but seven of his shot attempts coming from long range.
He is expected to provide additional interior depth for the Mocs.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.