Wiedmer: Mocs seniors' fathers glad for their UTC time

Sports fans don't look at the fine print. They pay their dollars and invest their emotions in hopes of a good time, which usually requires a victory on the back end.

And on that simple yet wholly understandable level, this University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball season has been a colossal disappointment.

You just don't lose a school-record (as a Division I member) 20 games, finish winless on the road for the first time ever and expect the masses to pat you on the back and say, "That's OK. You'll get 'em next year."

So whatever the vast majority of Mocs Maniacs are feeling these days, they're entitled. They're justified. And whatever scenario they wish for UTC's future, they just might be right.

But players' parents are made of different stuff. They want their sons to win, if only to make them happy. But they also want something more important. They want them to go from boys to men. Responsible men. Successful men.

So as happy as Dan Bell was to see his son Keegan exit McKenzie Arena with a 86-78 victory over Samford in his final home game as a Moc, he's much happier with what he believes his kid learned as a person.

"Obviously, it's been a tough season for everybody," Bell said. "But Keegan loves Coach Shulman and Coach Shulman loves Keegan. In today's world, can you ask for more than that? I can't be more pleased about anything than that."

But there was something else he was pleased about, something society should also be pleased about.

"Keegan's a better man," he said, "for having been here."

The doubters will say that Keegan Bell is an unusual example, that the relationship between him and Shulman is closer than most coach-player dynamics.

So give a listen to Ricky Taylor Sr., whose son also has spent four years around Shulman.

"First of all, I'm happy Ricky has gotten his degree," Taylor Sr. said. "That's always the most important thing. But I'm also still happy he came to UTC. I've watched him become a leader and a very responsible person."

So would Taylor Sr. choose for Taylor Jr. to play for the Mocs again, even knowing what he knows now?

"Oh, yes," he said with a grin. "I couldn't ask for anything more."

More than one UTC fan inside the Roundhouse could ask for a lot more.

Said lifelong Mocs supporter and longtime season-ticket holder Rusty Scott before the game began,

"Yes, I think [Shulman] should be fired," Scott said. "The numbers don't lie. (71-70 in the SoCon). It also looks like his players never improve from year to year."

Then there was Wayne Upchurch, who's been following the Mocs for more than 30 years.

"This morning I was eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel and I ran into a former Mocs player. When I asked him what he thought was wrong, he said, 'I don't really know why they're having trouble winning so many close games, but usually when you're losing that many close games it's the coaching.'"

Maybe it is. Surely it's a part of it. But with Z Mason back as close to 100 percent as he's been in a month, with Bell hitting his shots for one of the few times this season - shots he hit more times than not before this season - the Mocs won, a nice victory to head into the SoCon tourney.

Shulman's career will play out as it plays out. Life has a way of working that way.

But as Keegan Bell walked onto McKenzie's glistening floor a final time Saturday night, he thought, "I've never seen this place look more beautiful. I leave here very happy, very grateful and very fortunate to have been around so many good people."

That doesn't mean winning games shouldn't matter. It just means that we as a society are all lucky that wins and losses aren't all that matters to the players who play here or the parents who send them here.

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