The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team will begin play in the Southern Conference tournament when it faces Wofford at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
The event tipped off Friday night with a pair of first-round games, but as one of the top six finishers in the regular-season standings for the 10-team league, third-seeded UTC received a bye. The Mocs (20-11) swept their two regular-season meetings with sixth-seeded Wofford (17-14), winning 79-65 on Jan. 24 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and 81-65 on Feb. 21 at McKenzie Arena, but the third time around with the Terriers obviously matters more because it's March.
Here are five things to know about the Mocs — who won the SoCon tournament in 2022 to return to the NCAA field for the first time since 2016, then made the league final last year in Dan Earl's first season as coach — as they head into another postseason.
1. Maintaining the standard
When the Mocs defeated Mercer 84-75 on Feb. 28 in Chattanooga, it gave Earl his 20th victory of the season and continued a positive trend for the program. Since 2002, the UTC men have had six head coaches: Jeff Lebo, John Shulman, Will Wade, Matt McCall, Lamont Paris and Earl; all six have had at least one 20-win season.
2. Top-tier guard duo
In junior Trey Bonham and sophomore Honor Huff, the Mocs have two of the top 10 players in the league, no matter how you look at it. Bonham is a two-time transfer from Florida — he was first at Virginia Military Institute when Earl was there as head coach — who wasn't eligible until mid-December, but he has averaged 16.4 points and 3.8 assists per game, which led to him making the All-SoCon first team as selected by league coaches and media members. Huff led the Mocs in scoring at 17.6 points per game and by knocking down 105 3-pointers (fourth in NCAA Division I during the regular season, and 60 more than any of his teammates). They're obviously effective together, and they could be considered the most entertaining backcourt in the SoCon.
3. "Big"-time success
It took a while to figure out how to make the duo work, but in forwards Sam Alexis and Jan Zidek, UTC has two of the better big men in the SoCon who have entirely different skill sets. Alexis was named to the All-SoCon third team and also made the all-defensive team, averaging 10.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game. His offensive game is still a work in progress, which isn't the case with Zidek, one of the most polished bigs in the SoCon on that end of the court. He averaged 11.4 points per game and knocked down 45 3s despite coming off the bench for half of the season.
Staff file photo by Olivia Ross / UTC's Jan Zidek, left, has proven to be a big man with offensive polish, with his 45 3-pointers this season trailing only guard Honor Huff on the team. Huff's 105 makes from behind the arc ranked fourth in NCAA Division I during the regular season.4. Chess, not checkers
It probably wasn't planned and it shouldn't be considered that way, but the Mocs' home loss to Western Carolina to close the regular season could have a silver lining: It gave the Mocs the third seed and perhaps its most desirable path to a potential championship game. How? Furman and Western Carolina — two teams that gave the Mocs problems — will now face off in Saturday's last quarterfinal, while top-seeded Samford, the only team to sweep UTC, is on the opposite side of the bracket. There are still challenges because teams are playing for their seasons, but it's nicer to have fewer.
5. Finish the drill
Another way the road is nicer? It doesn't involve playing Friday night, which is reserved for the four lowest seeds. (And unlike Samford and No. 2 seed UNC Greensboro, the Mocs headed to Asheville this year knowing their opening opponent instead of waiting out first-round results.) That was a spot occupied by UTC last year, but the Mocs advanced all the way to the SoCon championship game as the No. 7 seed with a 20-point win against No. 10 VMI and upsets of No. 2 Samford and No. 5 Wofford before falling to No. 1 Furman in the final as the Mocs appeared to run out of gas late. If they are primed to take the next step and win the championship — and the NCAA tourney berth that comes with it — they won't need to win four games in four days to do it. Three in three is tough enough.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.