There's a couple of ways to look at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's 9-6 start to the basketball season, which includes a 1-1 mark in Southern Conference play.
One way would be from a consistency standpoint. The Mocs' record could even be better: five of the six losses were by single digits, and second-half leads were held attained against all six opponents, even the Ole Miss loss that was by 12 points. In three of those losses -- to Lipscomb, Belmont and Georgia -- they led in the final five minutes or in overtime.
But this is also a UTC team that hasn't been playing with a full deck for long. Only six players -- seniors Jake Stephens, Jamal Johnson and A.J. Caldwell; junior Demetrius Davis and true freshmen Sam Alexis and Brody Robinson -- have played in each of the 15 contests, and with a full roster the latter two may or may not figure into the SoCon playing rotation.
Key players have missed significant time. Point guard Dalvin White, who leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.7 assists per every mistake, missed two games with a lower body injury. Guard Khristion Courseault missed seven games due to injury. Jamaal Walker missed the season opener and another game due to illness and forward KC Hankton was slowed by injury early and is just now working his way back. Forward Grant Ledford, who scored 25 points last season in the conference-clinching victory at East Tennessee State, has missed significant time due to an arm injury.
"Usually, we would have had a larger sample size into what people could actually do within our style of play," UTC head coach Dan Earl said recently. "This is new for everybody, and we're kind of doing it on the fly. But it's a good problem to have because we have a bunch of different pieces and we just have to figure it out.
So while it may be frustrating that Earl is still trying to figure out who is and isn't going to play, it's also a positive as it pertains to the potential of the Mocs, who are fresh off an 80-51 win at Mercer Saturday, the fourth-largest margin of victory in a road game in program history. The evaluation process that is usually done in the preseason is instead being done in real time.
The grade for this team at the halfway point is an incomplete. It's not just simply the injuries; it's also the fact that this is entirely a new team, with only one active player (Stephens) having any experience with Earl. So everybody is learning each other, which is a lot more difficult when not everybody is available, which could make for an interesting conference season once the team gets 10-12 games together.
"At the end of the day, it's who is going to come in the game and help us win and positively impact the game," Stephens said recently. "If you come in and you're having a positive effect on the game, we'll ride with you and we'll keep things going. We'll figure it out as we keep going.
"We haven't seen the ceiling, obviously. It's just the beginning, really."
The Mocs finish the four-game road trip Wednesday at UNC Greensboro before returning home Saturday to face Stephens and Earl's former school, Virginia Military Institute.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.