At 10:08 Saturday morning, a party bus pulled up to Notre Dame High School's gym, and off walked the greatest men's basketball team in University of Tennessee at Chattanooga history - the 1996-97 "Sweet 16" Mocs.
They were supposed to have been there eight minutes earlier, but then they are all 40 or older now, and Friday night hadn't ended for most of them until way past midnight after a reception at a downtown hotel.
So the private reunion game they had planned started a wee bit late, prompting longtime fan and former Chattanooga Coca-Cola executive Gary Davis to ask the coach of that team, Mack McCarthy, if a few wind sprints weren't in order.
"No, I'll give them a free pass this time," the winningest coach in UTC history said with a laugh. "I know how late it was when I left (the reception), and they were still going strong."
Within 30 minutes, however, they were looking almost as strong and fit and polished on the court as they did that magical March weekend they knocked off Georgia and Illinois inside the Charlotte (N.C.) Coliseum to advance to the NCAA tournament's round of 16 and earn a photo on the front of USA Today.
Turning back time, post players Marquis Collier and Chris Mims rebounded and scored inside. Guard Willie Young and wing Johnny Taylor were gliding, if not flying. Guard Wes Moore was still refusing to turn the ball over, and Isaac Conner was still doing all the little things that made a big difference. David Phillips, another wing, was still displaying one of the best mid-range games in school history.
Even the bench guys - especially Preston Hawkins and Lincoln Walters - played string music from deep on the Notre Dame goals, prompting the ebullient Hawkins to shout to McCarthy after one sweet triple, "I told you I should have played more."
Of course, when the 41-year-old Walters was asked about his long-range stroke looking better than ever, he quickly added, "Yeah, but my back's not."
Yet the fact that 11 of them came back for this impromptu reunion - all but Bosnian Haris Begicevic, Billy Hutchins and Keynon Lake - is almost as remarkable as that Sweet 16 run.
"I haven't seen some of these guys since '97, but it seems like it was yesterday," said the 44-year-old Young, who both played and coached abroad for a total of 16 years. "We're like a family. Like brothers."
Conner, 41, is now a sports agent in Nashville.
"We picked up right where we left off," he said. "Our bond was strong 20 years ago, and it's just as strong today."
Davis believes there's more than a bond shared by these former Mocs, however.
"Look at what they've done with their lives since then," he said. "These weren't just good basketball players; they're good people."
Indeed, Walters has a wife and two kids, runs an online furniture store (theashevillehouse.com) and serves as director of youth and family ministry at Christ Community Church in Montreat, N.C. Conner is married with two kids. Phillips is married, works for a hospice provider in Monticello, Ky., and shoots hoops in his driveway with 10-year-old son Kendall every chance he gets. The 43-year-old Collier, his wife and their two children live in Memphis, where he has been a police officer for the past 19 years.
Mims, his wife and daughter live in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant, where he's a transportation officer. Taylor - after a stint as an assistant to former UTC coach Will Wade at Virginia Commonwealth University - is back in Orlando, Fla., with his wife and five kids. Once a first-round draft pick of the Magic, he played a total of 15 professional seasons in the NBA and abroad. Moore, married with two daughters, was just named the golf coach at his high school alma mater, Chattanooga Christian. Hawkins, 41, is married with two children and lives in Knoxville, where he's an attorney.
Chuck Barker - who was forced to redshirt that Sweet 16 season after transferring from Miami - is married and lives in Atlanta, where he has been an assistant principal at Sylvan Middle School. Young now lives with his wife in Binghamton, N.Y., where he coaches at New York International Academy.
Then there's reserve forward Akintoye "Loco" Oloko, who is married and lives in New York City, where he works in the financial sector. If you don't think that Sweet 16 run still resonates with those far beyond the Scenic City, listen to the 42-year-old Oloko's experiences in the Big Apple.
"Every time I've gone on a job interview, they've seen I played at UTC and they ask, 'You played in the Sweet 16?'" he said. "The interview almost always becomes all about the Sweet 16. Sometimes they remember more about it than I do."
All the players remember more than the Sweet 16. Walters recalled how if McCarthy was really upset with them at the end of an afternoon practice, he would ask the managers how long it would take to wash and dry the practice jerseys. Told two hours, McCarthy would say, "Good. Be back here at 6:15" p.m.
McCarthy recalls the last loss of that regular season, an unsettling defeat at Georgia Southern, after which he pulled the team off the bus and herded them back into the Eagles' gym. The players sat there in the dark a few minutes, worrying what their coach was about to do.
"'You guys can be great, but you've got to start playing like it,'" McCarthy said, recalling his simple speech. "We didn't lose again until Providence (in the Sweet 16)."
The greatest of those players, Taylor, said of the reunion, "This has sparked so many memories of a fonder, simpler time, when all we had to do was go to class and play basketball."
McCarthy's explanation for those fond memories?
"The stars were stars, and the other guys were stars in their roles," he said. "It was a perfect storm."
And 20 years later, those stars and star role players returned to stage a perfect reunion, their bond as strong as ever, even if their backs may no longer be.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.