Jake Stephens may have to settle on being the best partial-season player in University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball history.
The 7-foot, 275-pound transfer from Virginia Military Institute missed the last 11 games of the regular season after breaking his thumb against Furman inside McKenzie Arena on Jan. 18. He was cleared to play for last weekend’s Southern Conference tournament in Asheville, North Carolina, and led the Mocs to Monday night’s championship game, where they fell to the Paladins 88-79.
In the quarterfinals, semifinals and title contest, Stephens played 103 of a possible 120 minutes, and his 24 career games with the Mocs contained robust averages of 22.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.2 blocked shots. Oh, and he made 40.8% of his 3-point attempts.
Stephens talked this week about his year in Chattanooga and what lies ahead:
Are you feeling it more mentally or physically after what you did in Asheville?