Everyone officially tied to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball program this week will have very defined roles when the Mocs travel to Asheville, North Carolina, for the Southern Conference tournament.
The coaches will coach. The players will play. Jim Horton, the school's sports information director for basketball, will handle all things relating to the media.
Then there's David McKinley, who'll pretty much handle everything else as the Mocs' director of basketball operations.
"One, he just gets it," second-year UTC head coach Lamont Paris said Tuesday afternoon. "By the time you think of something that needs to be done, David's already planning it. He's detail oriented to the Nth degree."
Asked to provide details, Paris quickly returned to the "Autism Speaks" initiative a few weeks ago that had a number of college coaches wearing lapel pins shaped like a puzzle piece to draw attention to autism.
"The pieces had been on my desk for a week or so and we were heading out of town for a game, so I grabbed them and threw them in my bag," he recalled. "I figured I'd have some fun with David, since he never forgets anything.
"Once we're on the bus and safely away from campus so he couldn't run back and get them, I brought them up to see how he'd react to not bringing them. Instead, he told me he'd seen them on my desk one day and took five of them so we wouldn't be without them. He never misses anything."
Actually, he missed a turn at The Citadel last season while guiding the bus driver to the Bulldogs' gym.
"We were five or 10 minutes later getting there because of that," McKinley remembered. "Now I take the bus out on the night before the game so that I know the route before we board the bus for the game."
Come this weekend in Asheville he'll need to coordinate everything from where the team will practice, to the hotel they stay in, to the meals the players will eat, to game tickets for coaches and players, to credentials for coaches, players and support staff alike to get in and out of Cellular One Arena to transportation for the coaches to return to the arena to scout possible opponents.
"David does a lot of thankless things," Paris said.
Not that the 27-year-old Ohio University grad looks at it that way, though he does delegate keeping the uniforms and practice gear washed whenever possible.
"Probably laundry," he replied, when asked what he least likes to do.
Despite being a Columbus, Ohio, native, McKinley also doesn't like cheering for the hometown Ohio State Buckeyes because his father also graduated from Ohio U. He was the video coordinator at Wright State before coming south to UTC.
"I played basketball with (Mocs assistant) Walter Offutt at Ohio," McKinley said. "Actually, I watched Walter play while I sat on the bench as a walk-on. But he told me about Coach Paris, and I was lucky enough to get this job."
It may be the toughest job on the team. The Mocs leaving early Thursday evening for Asheville, McKinley has to make sure everything is ready for their arrival at the hotel, then make sure the hotel is ready to serve the team breakfast, lunch and dinner.
"Friday won't be bad," he said. "I'll be up by 6 (a.m.). With a 2:30 (p.m.) tip on Saturday, I'll probably get to bed around 11. Now if we win on Saturday, that's when it gets a little crazy. You've got to make sure everybody's fed and because the coaches will be up late studying film and working on a game plan, you've got to know where you can get Red Bull and coffee late at night. And if some of the coaches are heading back to the arena to scout, you've got to make sure there's transportation for them."
And what will McKinley order for the Mocs dinner?
"You want a couple of proteins," he said. "Maybe chicken and salmon or pork. Then a carbohydrate, either pasta or potatoes, then a vegetable, maybe green beans or a vegetable medley, something that has a good variety."
Clearly, no one in the UTC men's basketball program handles variety better than McKinley, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
"I did this because I wanted to get into coaching," he said. "And you get to see every part of the program in this job."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.