INDIANAPOLIS, IND. — Asked recently how his body was feeling, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior forward Garrison Keeslar said, “Like I’ve played 36 games.”
The definition of a successful season has changed for Keeslar and the Mocs, whose season has advanced to the month of April for the first time in school history with Tuesday night’s late tipoff against Loyola-Chicago in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
There are 364 teams in Division I basketball. Only eight have or will play a game in the month of April, with UTC being one of them. UC Irvine and North Texas were in the other NIT semifinal, while the NCAA Final Four is made up of Auburn, Florida, Duke and Houston.
“It’s awesome. Not many teams in the country get to do it at any level, so it’s pretty special,” Keeslar said prior to the Mocs leaving for Indianapolis on Sunday. “You can tell with our community, our fans, how much it means to them and so it’s been awesome. It’s been such a blessing.
“(Senior forward Bash Wieland) and I have talked about it and we have really squeezed out the most amount of basketball possible here, even a triple-overtime game (a win over Middle Tennessee State in the first round of the NIT). It’s been a blessing to enjoy every moment.”
The tournament champions, Wofford, have been done for two weeks after a first-round loss to Tennessee in the NCAA tournament. The only mid-majors remaining are those in the NIT, with representatives from the SoCon (UTC), American (North Texas), Atlantic 10 (Loyola-Chicago) and Big West (UC Irvine) represented.
But regardless of what the Mocs are playing for, the team is still connected, practicing and playing.
“Certainly at the time there’s that disappointment and you’ve got to get past that,” UTC head coach Dan Earl said. “If somebody was like, ‘Hey, what would you rather do? I probably would still say the NCAA tournament, but once you get to where we’re at and you’re continuing to win games, it’s hard knowing that if you said you’re going to lose the first round no matter what, you might actually pick (the NIT).
“Just the fact that we can be together with this group longer and we’re playing really good basketball teams and those have been three really good games, so it’s not like you’re playing bad teams. We won a couple on the road, the guys are enjoying it and the fans have been ultra supportive.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.