Trey Bonham and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team needed some down time.
The 2024-25 roster had been put together with the intentions of winning a Southern Conference championship and competing in the NCAA tournament. The Mocs reached half of that goal, claiming the regular-season title by two games, but saw their NCAA tournament dreams fall short with a loss to Furman in the semifinals of the SoCon tournament last week in Asheville, North Carolina.
After the loss to the Paladins, the Mocs were a broken team. Bonham, junior Honor Huff and senior Bash Wieland each broke down at different times at the podium. UTC head coach Dan Earl spoke of how proud he was of the group, noting that they “will play further on” as the Mocs (25-9) had qualified for the National Invitation Tournament by virtue of their regular season crown.
The team got back last Monday and took three days off from practice, opting to meet as a group on Wednesday. They returned to the court Thursday and started preparing for the unknown.
“That first practice was hard,” Bonham said, noting he “zoned out” at times, thinking back to his final missed shot that would have forced a second overtime against the Paladins. “Coach brought us together and told us that we could either focus on what could have been or we can not take this for granted.”