Lamont Paris took over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball program in April 2017, hoping to provide a certain level of stability to a school that was on its fourth coach in seven seasons.
Stability has been anything but the operative word since he arrived, but one season and one overhaul later, at least he can enter a season with a roster he feels fully confident in.
Because this year, it's all his.
Ten players will don a UTC game jersey for the first time in 2018-19, with only two - David Jean-Baptiste and Duane Moss - returning having played at all last season. Jean-Baptiste was one of two players to play in all 33 games in last season's 10-23 campaign, while Moss was limited to seven games after a November injury kept him out the rest of the season.
Six players representing 79 percent of the team's scoring left the program after the season. A seventh, Joshua Phillips, graduated. Five of the players who left - guards Rodney Chatman, Makale Foreman and Nat Dixon and forwards James Lewis and Makinde London - represented the Mocs' starting lineup in 12 of the first 13 games of the season.
If there's a positive, it's that Paris can say he had a hand in recruiting 11 of the 12 players on the team, with Jean-Baptiste representing the lone remaining holdover from the Matt McCall era. Paris and the coaching staff were able to evaluate and make informed decisions on everybody on the current roster.
The team will still be young. After starting the 2017-18 season with the youngest Division I basketball team in the country, the Mocs could be gearing up for more of the same, as the roster currently has an average age of 19.7 years old - slightly up from last season's 19.31, which is where they started last season before the addition of Phillips in December. Six freshmen will be on the roster, along with two sophomores, three juniors and a senior. South Alabama transfer A.J. Caldwell will sit out the season but could have four seasons of eligibility remaining starting in 2019-20.
Today, the Times Free Press takes a positional look at the 2018-19 roster:
GUARDS
Who's gone: Dixon announced his intent to graduate and transfer in March, choosing to attend Southern Methodist. That didn't catch the coaching staff off guard, nor did Foreman's decision to transfer to Stony Brook, where one of his former prep school assistant coaches now is on the staff. Chatman was a little different in that he didn't announce until the first of May, quickly deciding to move to Dayton for his final two seasons. The trio leaving takes away 37.3 points and 8.2 assists per game, along with a combined 91 starts. Jonathan Bryant was the first to announce a transfer, although he hasn't announced his future destination yet.
Who's back: Jean-Baptiste averaged 6.3 points and 1.8 assists per game last season, playing in all 33 games and starting the final 17.
Who's new: After sitting out last season due to NCAA transfer rules, junior Jerry Johnson is available and is expected to be a day-one starter. Johnson, nicknamed "Buckets," made 105 3-pointers in two seasons at Fairfield and averaged 9.8 points during his time there. Barring any last-minute additions, Paris will turn over the point-guard duties to two true freshmen in three-star Chicago resident Maurice Commander and District of Columbia product Donovann Toatley, a pair of talented, explosive players from big-time basketball areas. UTC also brought in 6-foot-4 Jonathan Scott, who could slide into the 3 slot vacated by Dixon.
INTERIOR
Who's gone: London, who averaged 13.6 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds per game, took his impressive array of skills and decided to forgo his final season of school to prepare for professional basketball. He shot 40 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3-point range this past season. Phillips - who spent three seasons on the Middle Tennessee State basketball team - was a welcome addition to UTC's hoops squad after spending two seasons playing football, averaging 9.2 points and 6.2 rebounds in 25 games. Lewis started the season strong but faltered late, still averaging 7.3 points and 5.4 rebounds. He's transferring to Appalachian State.
Who's back: The closest thing to "back" here is Moss, who played in the first seven games of the season, including a start against Tennessee Wesleyan. After four points in his first two games, he averaged 7.5 points and made 8 of his 10 3-point attempts in the next four before the injury against Akron.
Who's new: Paris loaded up on versatile interior players who can play and defend multiple positions. It started with the addition of Ramon Vila, a 6-9 Arizona State transfer who will be eligible after the first semester of classes ends. He'll have three seasons remaining. Then the staff received commitments from 6-6 Kevin Easley and 6-7 Keigan Kerby. Easley was once a four-star prospect by ESPN who had committed to Virginia Commonwealth but backed out after former UTC coach Will Wade left VCU for LSU in April 2017, while Kerby was once an Atlantic Coast Conference-caliber player who had injuries derail large chunks of his prep career. Next was 7-footer Thomas Smallwood, a graduate transfer from Alabama-Birmingham who is a talented shooter. Finally was the team's latest addition, 6-7 junior college product Rod Johnson, a versatile player who was a guard at Division II Northern Michigan but transitioned into more of a forward while at Highland Community College last season. UTC still has 6-11 redshirt freshman Justin Brown, who was in line to start for the Mocs in 2017-18 before a back injury prior to the season opener.
OUTLOOK
The 10 wins were an overall low point last season, although the Mocs had opportunities to win a number of other games. While equally as young and only slightly more experienced than last season, the Mocs are expected to be a more cohesive unit, as well as a versatile one. Brown, Smallwood, Easley, Kerby, Moss, Scott and Rod Johnson all provide considerable length and can play multiple positions, which should allow for a much different style of play this season. How that translates into the win-loss record remains to be seen, but if Commander and Toatley can assume the role as ball-handlers and the team can improve defensively, the Mocs will be a tough out late in the season.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.