While practicing free throws, Keegan Bell raved about Monday's taco night at Amigo's.
Then a team manager said he couldn't wait to go there again next Monday.
Bell stopped dribbling in the middle of his routine. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga point guard has no plans for tacos next Monday.
"We're going to be playing the championship game on Monday," Bell told the manager. "Tacos can wait."
The Mocs will play in the first round of the Southern Conference tournament tonight at about 9:30 against Georgia Southern.
The loser of that game concludes its season. The winner moves on to play the College of Charleston in the quarterfinals, and then come the semifinals Sunday and the championship game Monday with a series of wins.
But the Mocs can't get to Monday without winning tonight.
"Right now, that is the most important game," junior Jeremy Saffore said Thursday. "If we win, we get to keep playing. If we lose, we pack up and go home."
Junior forward Troy Cage had not been one of the 13 in the UTC rotation until last Saturday at Western Carolina, where he finished an impressive dunk in traffic and scored eight points in 14 minutes.
He could be the Mocs' secret weapon considering no team has a scouting report on a guy who was supposed to be in the starting lineup all year long but has been sidelined by injuries.
"The only way I'll be happy on this trip is by winning," Cage said. "Playing a few minutes and losing is not going to do nothing for me."
Playing 13 guys tonighit to save some energy for a four-game stretch means nothing if those guys can't win in the first round.
Those who played in the Mocs' 75-63 win at Georgia Southern were fortunate to come away with the squad's only true road win of the year. UTC committed 28 turnovers but was saved by 47 combined points from Ty Patterson and Josh Odem, who went 11-of-14 from the 3-point line.
"They're going to press and make it crazy," UTC coach John Shulman said. "It's not a great matchup for us because they're going to go crazy and we can't run our stuff. They press and scramble and we have to be ready for that. It's going to be crazy on Friday at 9:30."
The Mocs and Eagles finished the SoCon season with six SoCon wins each. Those numbers are slightly below expectations for the Mocs and slightly high for the Eagles.
"It's the third and final season and we're all undefeated," GSU coach Charlton Young said. "We're a very confident bunch now, and these kids believe they can beat anybody and that the tournament belongs to them as much as it does to Wofford."