When the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga received a commitment from Bash Wieland during the most recent offseason, UTC guard Honor Huff was a bit skeptical about the potential addition.
Wieland, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound forward from Cincinnati, would be joining the Mocs as a graduate transfer after five mostly injury-riddled seasons at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky.
“It was like, ‘What can he do here?'” Huff recalled earlier this week, saying the initial reaction was one shared by fellow guard Trey Bonham.
It was a fair question as the Mocs looked toward the 2024-25 season, their third of the Dan Earl era.
After all, the system in Earl’s first two years as UTC’s head coach had leaned a bit heavily on the ability to shoot the 3-pointer, and Wieland had just 17 makes on 101 long-range attempts (less than 17%) in his 78 college games to that point. As Huff and his teammates have learned, though, Wieland’s game has a unique nature that makes it valuable.