Coming off a lackluster follow-up to a National Invitation Tournament championship, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball program has entered an important offseason.
A 15-day window for players to enter the NCAA transfer portal opens April 7, and Dan Earl and his staff have a lot of work to do after his fourth season as UTC’s head coach ended with a 13-19 record for the Mocs and — for the first time since 2013 — on a Friday in the Southern Conference tournament, typically reserved for the lowest seeds in the league.
It was an injury-marred season. For that reason, the Mocs lost 91 potential player appearances combined for Sean Cusano, Tate Darner, Latif Diouf, Sebastian Hartmann, Jikari Johnson, Collin Mulholland and Teddy Washington Jr., and in the case of Cusano, Diouf and Hartmann, they were season-ending injuries. That doesn’t factor in freshman Zach Bleshoy, who missed UTC’s season due to a knee injury sustained as a high school senior and wasn’t expected to play this year.
But there was also some frustration in the performances of some players on the team during the season, which didn’t meet expectations.
(READ MORE: UTC men’s past two seasons show need to enjoy teams while they last)