Moments after hitting a 3-pointer against Indiana on Dec. 21, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior guard Jack Kostel turned around and — seemingly staring at one of the cameras — blew a kiss.
As it turns out, one of his best friends from his hometown of Dacula, Georgia, was in the crowd with his parents (who both went to Indiana) and had promised he’d find them and do his new signature celebration, and just happened to be looking at the camera when he did it.
“I guess it looked like I was going right at the camera, but I was really doing it to my friend and family,” Kostel said.
There’s a freeness that Kostel has been playing with, which he attributes to four seasons of playing for former UTC coach John Shulman at Alabama-Huntsville at the Division II level. It didn’t really matter what sort of role the 6-foot-2 senior guard was going to have for the Mocs (12-7, 4-2 Southern Conference), which was likely going to be the third guard behind senior Trey Bonham and junior Honor Huff.
“(Assistant coach Ander) Galfsky was pretty much the first coach to reach out to me in the portal and I loved what UTC was about,” Kostel recalled. “Obviously, I had the connection with Coach Shulman and he’s been at Chattanooga, so I’ve already kind of known about it and it was closer to home. It was a great fan community — I love the community here.