-It’s been a long time coming. Through seven games, the Chattanooga Mocs are 5-2 with six contests coming away from the comforting environs of McKenzie Arena. The Mocs open a three-game homestand with the University of Louisiana at Monroe. While it’s good to be home, Coach Matt McCall looks to avoid getting comfortable in preparation.
“One thing I’ve talked to our team about is the human nature saying we’ll be ok…we’re at home. The second you do that, you get beat. It starts Saturday against a very good opponent that was one of our six losses last year.
“They hang their hat on playing hard and being extremely physical.
So we have our work cut out for us. Just to say we’re at home, we’ll be OK, we can’t do that. We’ve had an edge to us these last two games that we need to going into this game.”
UTC has won its last two games impressive fashion and in different ways. An offensive explosion led to an 88-71 win at Kennesaw State last Saturday, while suffocating defense claimed a 68-52 triumph at Coastal Carolina.
Forward Justin Tuoyo leads the way averaging 14.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game. He ranks fourth in the country in blocks per game. Greg Pryor (13.4 ppg) and Tre’ McLean (12.3) also average in double figures. McLean is coming off quite a night Coastal where he tallied 26 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.
ULM has a balanced attack led by Travis Munnings’ 12.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per contest. Nick Coppola (11.8, 44.8% 3pt), Jordon Harris (11.7, 44.7% 3pt) and Marvin Jean-Pierre (11.5) also contribute double-figure points. Coppola runs the show at the point with an impressive 34:4 assist/turnover ratio which is the nation’s second-best mark.
“Outside of Joel Berry, [Coppola] is probably the best point guard we’ve played this year,” McCall added. “He controls the whole game. The ball is in his hands. He’s had 34 assists with just four turnovers on the year, that’s an impressive stat for anybody. It starts with him.
“They’re a physical team. When shots go up, they’re flying to the backboard so we have to rebound the ball and get our pace into the game. They’ll want to slow it down while we’ll want to speed it up.”
The 2 p.m., start airs online on the SoCon Digital Network and over the airwaves at 98.1 the Lake in Chattanooga. Links to live stats, video and audio (Mocs Sports Network) are on GoMocs.com’s men’s basketball schedule page. Click the link above for game notes for both programs when available.