Wiedmer: UTC men shouldn’t be this good, but they are

UTC men's basketball coach Lamont Paris shouts to his players during the Mocs' home game against The Citadel on Saturday at McKenzie Arena. The Mocs beat the Bulldogs 73-71 to improve to 10-10 overall and 5-2 in the Southern Conference this season. UTC men's basketball coach Lamont Paris shouts to his players during the Mocs' home game against The Citadel on Saturday at McKenzie Arena. The Mocs beat the Bulldogs 73-71 to improve to 10-10 overall and 5-2 in the Southern Conference this season.

By Mark Wiedmer January 20, 2019 5 min read

The highly respectable crowd of 4,229 had long ago left McKenzie Arena to navigate another soggy Saturday night in the Scenic City.

The scoreboards, the ones earlier proclaiming the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team a narrow 73-71 winner over The Citadel, were now dark. And in a few minutes the coach who had just orchestrated the team’s third straight Southern Conference victory was about to leave, too.

“We’ve still got a lot of improvements we need to make,” said second-year coach Lamont Paris, whose Mocs are now 10-10 this season after finishing 10-23 a year ago. “But I’m happy they’re seeing the rewards for all the hard work they’ve put in.”

There’s no way this should be happening. Not when all of one player – ONE PLAYER – returned from last year’s team. And David Jean-Baptiste was more of a hustle guy this time last season. Even if anyone could possibly imagine one player being enough, Jean-Baptiste didn’t figure to be the second coming of Gerald Wilkins or Willie White, and he hasn’t been.

Mark Wiedmer

But he has done everything Paris asked regarding all these guys he had never seen before summer school began. He has schooled his new teammates on terminology and what Paris expects and how to stay off his bad side.