Chattanooga basketball player Casey Jones has never seen the movie, Hoosiers (basketball movie), nor does he know about the movie-ending heroics of Hickory HS star Jimmy Chitwood.
But last Saturday afternoon at East Tenn. State, Jones played the perfect part of Chitwood (who hit the game winning shot for state champion Hickory HS) and hit the game-winning 3-pointer to give the Mocs a 74-71 overtime win against the Bucs.
With the game tied at 71-71, UTC coach Will Wade called timeout with 17 seconds remaining in the overtime and Jones told Wade – just as Chitwood did to coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) – to get him the ball and he’ll make it.
Jones looked to pass to either Ronrico White or Marty Bareika, but both were guarded so he took the shot and it was “nothing but nylon.”
“After I made the shot my mind went blank and the next thing I knew Ronrico was tackling me in the corner after the final horn,” said Jones who had never hit a game-winning shot in college or high school prior to the ETSU win.
“I practice that shot a lot in practice every day and fortunately I made it in a game to help our team win.”
While Jones will soon watch the closing minutes of Hoosiers and learn about Chitwood, when he hit the game winner, many old white guys either in Freedom Hall (including UTC radio announcer Jim Reynolds) or listening to the game on radio silently gave Jones a high complement by saying, “Jimmy Chitwood!”
UTC at Samford: Coach Wade and Jones’ teammates the junior from New Orleans has a few more Chitwood-type shots in his basketball repertoire as the Mocs travel to Samford Thursday with an 8 p.m. EST tip off.
Jones has started all 18 games and leads the Blue and Gold in scoring (13.4 ppg) and rebounding (6.8 rbpg), second in steals (22) and third in assists (30).
“Samford’s record (7-12,0-6) is deceiving as they have lost some close games,” said Wade alluding to the Bulldogs’ two point loss to ETSU (76-74) and three point set back to Wofford (68-65).
Wade should have regular point guard Greg Pryor back in the lineup for the Samford game - Pryor sat out the last two games due to hip injury - which is a huge plus for the Mocs.
“Our offense is not nearly as good without Greg and it will be good to have him play as Samford will press us the entire game.”
Next Game: Thursday Jan. 15 at Samford, 8 p.m. EST
Next Home Games: Jan. 22 vs. VMI … Jan. 24 vs. UNCG
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net