Something has been missing for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team its past couple of games.
Against Virginia Military Institute, the Mocs came out sluggish and were humbled in an 80-64 defeat at McKenzie Arena - UTC's first home loss and the Keydets' first road win all season. This past Saturday at East Tennessee State, the Mocs played much better but lost 76-71 to the Buccaneers for the program's first back-to-back losses since the 2014-15 season.
UTC coach Matt McCall said his team has been missing its edge, but his players believe they'll have it back for tonight's game against UNC Greensboro at 7:30. It will be the second half of a Southern Conference doubleheader after the UTC women host Mercer at 5:30.
"What makes this team good is their edge, their chip," McCall said. "That's how you beat Tennessee, Marshall, Furman, Wofford. For 15 games we've had that chip, and that's what made half these guys really good last year.
"That's not a knock on anyone. It's not a knock on their ability, it's the truth. We have to have that focus, that chip, that edge that there's always something to prove, because the second you think you have it figured out, that's when you get beat."
Senior forward Casey Jones said the Mocs have been missing "that dog" - the fight that a team has to have every night it steps out on the floor. The Bucs outrebounded the Mocs 43-28, with 14 offensive rebounds leading to 14 second-chance points.
"You don't have that dog in you when you get outrebounded like we did," Jones said.
Only four players on the active roster were around the last time the Mocs suffered back-to-back losses, making this a new experience for many players. Most of the roster came on last year, when the team was still hungry and still fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament, which the Mocs attained.
As the assumed top dog in the SoCon this season, UTC has been taking everybody's best punch.
In some cases, the Mocs have punched back. In others, they didn't.
"The first thing we had to do was address the fact that we knew it was going to be hard. That was part of the adversity we were expecting to face," Jones said. "The next step is taking it up a notch in practice. We lost that game because we got outrebounded by a thousand. We have to play hard, play hard in practice. We can't take days for granted, we can't take each other for granted.
"This is the last time we can do what we want to do with this specific team, so we want to go out and have fun with each other. That's the biggest part. We have to be excited for each other, because that brings our energy and focus up."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.