No time to relax
Busy stretch continues as Mocs head to Macon
Moments after speaking to the media after his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team held off Furman on Saturday evening, Matt McCall shook hands with good friend and Paladins coach Niko Medved.
The two had a brief conversation about their recent, as well as their upcoming, schedules. The word “ridiculous” may or may not have been used.
Not many of the Southern Conference coaches like it.
The Mocs ( 21- 3, 10-1) will play at Mercer (18-6, 8-3) tonight in what will be their fifth game in 10 days. And two more games remain this week for UTC, which must travel to Western Carolina and East Tennessee State. In all, the Mocs will play seven games in a 15- day span, something McCall has bemoaned on a number of occasions during his first season as coach.
The players realize that it’s part of the process, though.
“It’s tough,” Mocs center Justin Tuoyo said Saturday. “We have a great trainer (Kyle Creasy) and a great strength and conditioning coach (Collin Crane). They do whatever they have to do to make sure our bodies are straight. But it’s a mental thing.
“Tonight we have to take care of our bodies, tomorrow we have to get back into the gym. It’s all mental toughness. It’s just preparing us for the (SoCon) tournament, because we have to win three games in three days. So this is just preparing us. We’re playing all tough teams right now. So everybody just needs to be focused, but it’s really helping us actually.”
McCall recently referred to this week’s games as the “three toughest road environments in the league,” and tonight’s trip to Macon, Ga., may be the toughest. Hawkins Arena only “seats” 3,200, but the Bears’ average attendance there is 3,417, and they set a school record with 4,772 Saturday against The Citadel, a game they won 88-72 to remain two games behind the Mocs for first place in the SoCon.
UTC isn’t the only team going through this. Wofford is on a stretch of five games in 10 days as well, with the Terriers’ fifth a home matchup with The Citadel on Saturday. Furman is in a similar situation, too.
The Mocs have been forced to be creative to find ways to win during their busy stretch. It took free throws to defeat Samford in Birmingham, Ala., on Jan. 30. Then came their offensive explosion at home against The Citadel, a game in which they scored a program-record 125 points against a Division I opponent. That was followed by a pair of solid defensive efforts against Wofford and Furman.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” McCall said. “We’ve got to get good rest and figure out how to win games in different ways in order to get to where we want to.”
Jones weighs his options after injury
McCall said Saturday that senior forward Casey Jones still hasn’t practiced since suffering an injury in December, and that the decision on whether the SoCon preseason player of the year will come back this season is up to “what Casey wants to do.”
Jones played in eight games for the Mocs this season, averaging team highs in scoring ( 12.6), rebounding ( 6.5) and assists (3.9) before dislocating his ankle Dec. 11, the day before the Mocs played (and won) at Dayton. Since then, the Mocs are 14-1, with their only loss at Furman on Jan. 9.
Because Jones hasn’t played in 30 percent of his team’s games, he is eligible for a redshirt and could return for the 2016-17 season.
“He has to do what he feels is best for his future going forward,” McCall said. “He’s weighing (the redshirt option) right now. The one thing I want to do is to get him the information I can so he can make the best decision possible, but I want it to be his decision. We all know how good he is, and we’d love to have him this year, but if he wants to come back ( next season), we’d love that as well.
“I want to do what’s best for his career. As bad as we want him in Chattanooga, Casey Jones has a big future in this game after college. I want him to be as healthy as possible so he can reach his goals and dreams.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.