Stepping on the McKenzie Arena court Saturday was a little weird for Jake Stephens.
As the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior got ready for the Mocs' latest Southern Conference basketball game, a gaze to the other half of the court brought into view opposing players warming up for Virginia Military Institute.
VMI was the place that had afforded Stephens the opportunity to be one of the most highly sought players in the NCAA transfer portal this past spring. The place where he scored 1,416 points, grabbed 585 rebounds, blocked 153 shots and made 189 3-pointers in four seasons.
For those four years, the Mocs, among other SoCon foes, were the enemy. But now it was the Keydets who were the enemy — only that wasn't really the case. Those were his friends over there, guys he had been into numerous battles with, except now he's against them.
The sight of the Keydets also brought to mind for Stephens some great memories from his time at VMI, which found him as a 6-foot-8 high school senior in Bunker Hill, West Virginia, with no scholarship offers, signed him and helped develop him into a 7-foot, 275-pound pro prospect. Stephens thought of his time in VMI's Cameron Hall, where he admitted Saturday he "made more shots than in any gym in his life."
But only for a moment; there was a game to play.
"It's a nerve-wracking game," Stephens said. "You try to approach it like every other game, but obviously it's a little different. But it's great to have the McKenzie crowd behind you. They're going to cheer and push through the game, even when things aren't going well, and I think that's a credit to this fan base.
"They expect success and we do, too, so we're going to bring it."
Soon, it was again just a game. One that Stephens is very good at — he was the SoCon men's basketball player of the month for both November and December — and he reminded everyone about his abilities with 37 points and 15 rebounds in the Mocs' 85-78 win over the scrappy Keydets.
Stephens was 11-for-18 from the field, 5-of-6 from 3-point range and 10-of-13 at the foul line to help the Mocs control the game as they built their lead to as many as 23 points in the second half and improved to 10-7 overall and 2-2 in the SoCon. The Keydets (5-12, 0-4) scored seven points in the final 24 seconds to avoid a double-digit final margin.
UTC, which was coming off a 1-3 road swing and hadn't played at McKenzie since mid-December, hosts Western Carolina (10-7, 3-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday before visiting Samford next Saturday night.
Some of those same emotions that Stephens dealt with bubbled up for first-year UTC coach Dan Earl as well.
He got his head coaching start at VMI eight years ago and helped the program to consecutive winning campaigns the past two seasons, not a small feat in this transfer-heavy age — one that is particularly challenging for the Keydets, who can lose players to the transfer portal but can't bring anybody in that way because of school restrictions.
VMI staff members Earl had worked closely with, such as athletic trainer Lance Fugiwara, are still around. Those players Stephens played with previously? That was under Earl, who knew their on-court tendencies. That's why when Stephens gave up an open 3-pointer to Tyler Houser, Earl said he wanted to "wring (Stephens') neck."
But Saturday was about the pair's contributions to UTC, not VMI, and a team that is still trying to find an identity beyond Stephens and senior Jamal Johnson, who finished with a trio of 3s and 13 points.
"Really proud of Jake," Earl said. "Initially, the first minute or two, he seemed a little bit tight or what have you. We didn't know what they were going to do exactly, whether they were going to double him a lot. They ended up switching a lot of screens, and anything that other teams do can kind of mess with you initially. So it took him a little while to get going, then it's the typical performance.
"I feel like Jake's kind of like a son to me, I've been with him so long. So I see that and I'm super proud of him; 37 and 15 is unbelievable."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.