The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is seeded sixth in the 10-team Southern Conference men's basketball tournament that starts Friday in Asheville, North Carolina. UTC was the fifth seed in 2019.
The comparisons between the Mocs of this season and last season end there.
Coach Lamont Paris laughed at the observation, fully realizing his current Mocs (19-12) - who earned the tourney's final first-round bye and won't play until Saturday at Harrah's Cherokee Center - head into their quarterfinal against No. 3 seed UNC Greensboro (23-8) a much more complete team than last season's UTC squad. Paris also understands the SoCon, even minus a team with a top-25 national ranking at this point, is far better overall than a year ago.
"We are better in every measurable way, but we finish lower in the standings than last year," Paris said with a laugh. "The league is good. The funny thing is, and if you look at all the metrics, last year was the best year for the Southern Conference ever.
"We joked about how there wasn't a Wofford this year, but when you look at that team and what it was composed of, that team was special. Even though we don't have that, the top of our league is really, really good. But on top of that, four through seven (Western Carolina, Mercer, UTC and Wofford) are also very good, much better than a year ago."
UTC's reward is an 8:30 p.m. matchup against the Spartans, who are still smarting from last week's 74-72 loss to the Mocs at McKenzie Arena in the regular-season finale for both teams. UNCG, which has reached the SoCon title game the past three years, is led by junior guard Isaiah Miller - named this week the league's player of the year and defender of the year - and active big men James Dickey and Kyrin Galloway.
The Mocs will try to repeat last Saturday's game plan, which featured a high-energy effort and a big dose of the inside-outside duo of Ramon Vila and Matt Ryan, who combined for 36 points. The two, who were named this week to the All-SoCon team, have become quite a problem for opposing defenses.
"It's extremely important to have both those guys going at the same time," Paris said. "There was one possession in particular in the last game, and I showed it in the film session yesterday. The ball goes into the post to Ramon, and Matt entered into him. Typically, you are either going to have to play one-on-one in the post or you're going to help off the guy typically who threw it in.
"You could see their hesitation in them not wanting to leave Matt to help down low with Ramon, so Ramon ended up playing one-on-one in that situation and scoring. It puts a team in a quandary, especially when both of those guys are playing well."
Vila was also part of the Mocs' success on the defensive end with career highs in steals (five) and blocked shots (three). The junior from Spain believes the win and how it came about will carry over to the tournament.
"After a big win like the one Saturday, it opened our eyes to what we are capable of and we're excited to do it again," Vila said. "We hope to bring the fight to them like we did Saturday."
UTC senior Jonathan Scott agreed with Vila and, like his coach, believes anything less than maximum energy won't work against the Spartans, who beat the Mocs 72-52 on Jan. 18 in Greensboro.
"UNCG is always a tough team for us," Scott said. "They compete hard, and they are aggressive. That's something we don't do every game. We often struggle to either box out or get up on guys and be physical. That's something I wanted to bring to that last game, especially on senior night.
"There has definitely been a different level of energy this week, and that's perfect timing because we will need it."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.