The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball program, coming off a season capped by winning the National Invitation Tournament this past April, tips off its 2025-26 schedule when Union Commonwealth, an NAIA school from Barbourville, Kentucky, visits McKenzie Arena on Nov. 3.
The Mocs had to replenish their ranks after losing five players to graduation as well as three-time All-Southern Conference guard Honor Huff as a transfer to West Virginia, 6-foot-6 Noah Melson to Fairleigh Dickinson, and wing Isaiah Otyaluk, who redshirted last season, to D-II’s Drury University. UTC has added three freshman and six transfers since last season to help fill those gaps.
Here’s a look at five storylines for the Mocs entering the rapidly approaching season, Dan Earl’s fourth as head coach in Chattanooga.
1. Guard play: As long as Earl is the head coach, there will be above-average guard play in the program.
The losses of the team’s top three guards from last season meant an infusion of talent was going to be necessary, and the Mocs did that with the additions of a pair of Division II transfers in Pittsburg State’s Jordan Frison — a Memphis native — and Trevecca Nazarene’s Jikari Johnson; Southeast Missouri’s Teddy Washington Jr., who had 23 points against UTC in a November game last season; and Brennan Watkins, the last remnant of the Earl-Virginia Military Institute connection who played last season at North Dakota State.