Former Mocs Coach McCarthy Reflects On Genesis Of UTC’s Rivalry With ETSU

When Mack McCarthy was hired in 1985 as the head basketball coach for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he was given a firm mandate as to his top priority by the late Harold Wilkes, the school’s long-time athletic director.

The rivalry with Marshall had reached its apex with the Herd ending UTC’s streak of three straight NCAA Tournament trips with back-to-back titles of their own. This didn’t sit well with Wilkes, and he made it clear during an early meeting with McCarthy when reviewing the basketball budget.

“Coach Wilkes said, ‘Your recruiting budget is $50,001. The significance of that extra dollar is that it’s one dollar more than Marshall’s. As long as I’m AD, you’ll always have a dollar more than them. You don’t have to beat them every time, but you’ll have to be competitive,’” McCarthy recalled.

With his marching orders in hand, McCarthy won three of his first four games against the Herd, and finished 16-12 against Marshall during his 12 seasons in Chattanooga. Marshall managed only one more Southern Conference tournament title in 1986-87 before exiting the league 10 years later.

But a different threat to the Mocs’ dominance within the SoCon was emerging, creating a heated rivalry that continues still today. East Tennessee State became Chattanooga’s new nemesis by winning four straight conference tournament titles starting with the 1988-89 season, and the acrimony between the in-state foes has not lessened nearly four decades later.

The latest installment of the series takes place Saturday at 7 p.m. inside McKenzie Arena with Chattanooga (18-8, 10-3 SoCon) tied with UNC Greensboro on top of the league standings riding a six-game winning streak. The Mocs are coming off an impressive 82-68 wire-to-wire win at preseason favorite and defending champion Samford on Wednesday.

ETSU (15-11, 8-5 SoCon) arrives on the heels of a surprising loss at Western Carolina, although the Bucs managed to sweep the season series with a pair of wins over Samford. All five of ETSU’s conference losses have been by single digits.

Chattanooga enters the game holding a 55-47 edge in the all-time series, having claimed eight of the last 11 meetings after ETSU had won 10 straight previously. But the roots of the deep-seated disdain between the schools were manifested during McCarthy’s tenure at UTC.

Having previously served as an assistant coach at ETSU for two years before joining Sonny Smith in his move to Auburn, McCarthy won his first six encounters with the Bucs. The streak extended a run that began under former Mocs coach Murray Arnold that saw UTC go 16-1 against their foes from Johnson City over a seven-year span.

But the importance of the rivalry was quickly revealed in the first game during McCarthy’s inaugural season.

“Marshall was the team to beat, and ETSU really wasn't on the radar,” McCarthy said. “But they got on the radar really quickly that first year. Back then, we hosted two tournaments - a smaller one in early December with all Tennessee teams and then a big tournament after Christmas. There was a problem with scheduling in the early tournament, so ETSU filled the spot which wasn’t considered a conference game.

“There was a fight toward the end of the game when a couple of guys got mixed up, and we had to break it up. Clearly at that point, it was a bigger deal to them to play us than it was for us to play them. We were not concerned because they weren't a contender. But that was about to change and playing ETSU soon became a big deal.”

Les Robinson left The Citadel to take over ETSU’s program the same year McCarthy arrived in Chattanooga. He landed a stellar recruiting class that featured dynamic 5-foot-7 point guard Keith “Mister” Jennings, 6-foot-11 center Greg Dennis and talented swingman Calvin Talford that suddenly put ETSU on the map nationally.

Starting with the ’88-’89 season, ETSU won four straight SoCon titles while compiling 99 wins including three victories over N.C. State, two wins against Tennessee and victories over Wake Forest and Memphis. The Bucs rose to No. 10 in the national polls in 1991, later upsetting Arizona in the first round of March Madness before losing to Michigan. Two years earlier, ETSU nearly became the first 16^th seed to win an NCAA Tournament game in a one-point loss to top-ranked Oklahoma.

“Les got that great signing class and it seemed like they were there for a decade,” McCarthy said. “They got the momentum and it seemed like it lasted forever.”

The pendulum in the in-state competition swung in favor of ETSU, with the Bucs capturing seven of nine meetings against the Mocs. Chattanooga won both regular season contests in ’88-’89 by a combined five points before ETSU bounced the Mocs in the SoCon semifinals by three points on their way to their first league title.

UTC was swept the next year by the Bucs, but the Mocs made a statement in the ’90-’91 campaign that still resonates with McCarthy. With a crowd of 10,121 jammed inside of McKenzie Arena, Chattanooga claimed a 76-74 win thanks to a pair of deciding free throws from junior Levert Threats.

“For us to beat a ranked team and our rival, that was a pretty big deal,” McCarthy said. “Levert just had a death in the family, so it had been a tough week. I was really particular about not putting anything extra on the uniforms, but he had written his sister's name on his shoes unbeknownst to me until after the fact. He was really, really emotional at the free throw line, and of course, afterwards, too. That was a special evening.”

The Bucs later won by 23 in the return trip to Johnson City, then trounced the Mocs by a final score of 104-71 in the SoCon semis on their way to their third straight conference title under first-year coach Alan LeForce as Robinson had departed to take over the N.C. State program.

“I was madder than a hornet after that one because they absolutely ran it up against us,” McCarthy said. “I only tried to run it up twice in my 12 years, but one of those was against ETSU a couple of years later at our place. We were up 33 and I called timeout to set up a 3-point shot even though we were winning by a bunch. The other time came against The Citadel after they celebrated a little bit too hard when they upset us at their place. So, when they came back to Chattanooga, we did everything we could to score as many points as we could. I was normally opposed to that, but I can admit to doing it twice in my head coaching career.”

After ETSU’s four-year run of success, Chattanooga would resume its position as SoCon kingpin by capturing the next three conference crowns that included ousting the Bucs in the ’92-’93 tournament semifinals. McCarthy won six of his final eight games against ETSU, capping his career at UTC with his fourth title in five seasons in ’96-’97 that concluded with the Mocs magical run to the Sweet 16.

“Playing ETSU was certainly a little more personal for me because I had coached there and still had friends in Johnson City,” McCarthy said. “I felt like we had helped get them going in the right direction, although it had been a few years. But it was big for our fans to develop that natural rivalry because we're in the same state and were recruiting a lot of the same kids.”

Chattanooga has won 12 SoCon tournament titles since joining Division I, the last one coming three years ago. ETSU won back-to-back championships in ’02-’03 and ’03-’04, and currently has eight NCAA appearances as a member of the SoCon with three more coming from their years in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Among the 11 recorded crowds in excess of 10,000 in McKenzie Arena history, three of those were against ETSU during McCarthy’s reign. The memories of those events still resonate with the retired coach who now lives in Richmond, Va. and continues to provide color commentary on college basketball telecasts.

“Coming to the arena was the thing to do in Chattanooga in those days,” McCarthy said “We really felt like we were the city's team. I remember a whole lot of conversations about what we could do to make it more appealing even though we were averaging 6,000 to 7,000 per game. People were in the habit of supporting UTC basketball, and the product we were putting out there every night got people excited.”

UTC enters Saturday’s game paced by a quartet of players averaging in double figures under third-year coach Dan Earl. Trey Bonham, Honor Huff and Bash Wieland are all scoring at a 13.5 points per game clip, while Frank Champion averages 11.4.

The Bucs are led by former UTC assistant Brooks Savage, in his second season at ETSU. Quimari Peterson’s 18.3 points per outing leads the team, followed by Jaden Seymour at 17.0 and John Buggs III with 11.4.

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com