UTC Legend Willie White Glad NIT Gave Him One Last Hurrah

As the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team travels to Murfreesboro to take on Middle Tennessee State in an opening round National Invitation Tournament matchup Tuesday evening at 8 p.m., it represents the opportunity for a clean slate and a sense of consolation.

Last week’s frustrating loss to Furman in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals is history, and the Mocs are now hoping to use the NIT as a way to finish the season on a winning note.

Legendary UTC player Willie White knows that feeling all-too-well, the memories still fresh some four decades later.

For a program that had stormed to the forefront of the collective awareness of college basketball the previous couple of years, expectations had reached dizzying levels for the Mocs entering the 1983-84 season. White was looking to fulfill an earlier bold promise he had made, hoping to finish his career at UTC a perfect four-for-four in NCAA Tournament appearances.

Precedent had been set with three straight forays into March Madness, and Chattanooga had become recognized as a mid-major force under head coach Murray Arnold, rising to as high as 15th in the national polls.

The ’83-’84 campaign had all the makings of a special season. The core of the starting lineup returned for their senior year, something that would never occur in today’s NIL and transfer portal era. White, a Memphis native who was a three-time all-conference guard and SoCon player of the year his sophomore season, was joined by point guard Chris McCray, Howard School product Stanford Strickland at forward and burly Lamar Oden, who also provided valuable minutes at the post spot in his second season in Chattanooga.

The Mocs also featured Gerald Wilkins, the younger brother of Atlanta Hawks star Dominique Wilkins, who was back for his second year after transferring from a junior college. Arnold had also signed 6-foot-9 junior center Clifford Morgan to further bolster the Mocs’ formidable lineup, and a bevy of talented freshmen were in the fold waiting their turn.

But there was a new force emerging in the Southern Conference that threatened UTC’s recent dominance. Under the leadership of Rick Huckabay, a brash young coach in his first season after serving as an assistant with Dale Brown at LSU, Marshall ended the Mocs’ run of NCAA Tournament appearances with a classic 111-107 double overtime victory the first year the SoCon held its tournament in Asheville, N.C.

Huckabay became the straw that stirred the budding rivalry with the Mocs, and he would eventually lead Marshall to three more NCAA tournament appearances plus an NIT bid in his six years with the Thundering Herd. Huckabay later resigned in 1989 amid an investigation surrounding recruiting violations.

The loss to Marshall was devastating for White, falling short of the NCAA tournament with a team that was arguably UTC’s best collection ever of talent on the floor.

“I was cramping up late in the game. Gerald (Wilkins) had fouled out and Eric Brown hit a couple of big 3-pointers,” said White, who remains the Mocs career Division I scoring leader with 1,969 points. “We didn't have any big people because they all fouled out. We ended up losing and, man, that hurt my heart because I had predicted we were gonna go to the NCAA every year I was there. We were used to going to the NCAA tournament, and us seniors didn't want this to end.”

The Mocs had hoped for an at-large bid into March Madness, as both Marshall and UTC had proven themselves worthy of being included. But the same negative bias or veiled indifference toward the SoCon that exists today was present at the time, and only the tournament champion Thundering Herd gained admittance into the Big Dance.

“It should have been two teams coming out of the conference back then, the winner and the loser,” White said. “Nothing has changed since then. What makes me mad is you see all these other conferences like the SEC that’s got 14 teams going, and that dude on ESPN Joe (Lunardi) whatever his name is overlooking the smaller schools. It’s a crying shame.”

But the Mocs emergence into a highly regarded mid-major program prompted an invite to participate in the NIT, extending the careers of White and his fellow Chattanooga seniors.

It represented a modest consolation prize given UTC’s raised bar for postseason expectations, but the opportunity to host SEC foe Georgia in the opening round heightened the anticipation. The Bulldogs had been a surprise participant in the Final Four the previous season and arrived at the Roundhouse with a 17-12 record behind senior standouts Vern Fleming and James Banks.

With Chattanooga boasting a 23-6 mark - with half of the losses coming at the hands of Marshall and another at North Carolina to open the season - 10,132 fans packed the UTC Arena to watch the Mocs defeat Georgia in overtime, 74-69.

“I had a chip on my shoulder playing any of those big schools, because I felt like they weren't giving us no kind of recognition,” said White, who went on to play two years for Denver in the NBA. “The year we beat North Carolina State in the first game, Dick Vitale had predicted they would win easy. Me and Coach Arnold went to some podium to speak and I told Dick Vitale, ‘Chattanooga’s fixin’ to ride, man. Nobody is going to walk over us, not when I'm here.’ I think Coach kind of got mad at me, but I was right.”

Up next was a trip to Knoxville to face Tennessee in a second-round NIT matchup. The sibling rivalry had been rekindled the previous season when the Volunteers won the inaugural basketball game at the UTC Arena by 55-49, and the tournament committee opted to put the Mocs on the road to visit Stokely Athletics Center in 1984. Once again, Chattanooga refused to surrender any ground to their “big brothers” up the road, falling by a 68-66 count when the Vols Willie Burton connected on a winning basket in the final seconds to wrap up a three-year record of 77-15 for the Mocs.

“We should have beat Tennessee every time, but I think we got the shaft a little bit in that game from the refs,” White said. “But that was my last game. It was time for me to move on. You know, no more basketball at UTC, but I had a lot of fun.”

After being bounced from the SoCon Tournament semifinals by VMI in 1985, UTC accepted an NIT invite again. Chattanooga made an impressive run by advancing to the tournament’s third round, only one win shy of making it to the Final Four in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

UTC hosted ACC member Clemson in front of a UTC Arena crowd of 8,132 in an opening round win, 67-65, before traveling to Beaumont, Texas for their next game against Lamar. It was there that a magical moment in Chattanooga basketball lore unfolded.

Trailing by seven points with 1:14 remaining, the Mocs were able to send the game into overtime after Wilkins received a full court inbounds pass from Eugene Deal and drained a turnaround jumper from the free throw line at the buzzer. The Mocs went on to win in overtime when James Hunter scored on a driving basket to give Chattanooga an 85-84 win over Lamar.

The Mocs lost 71-66 at Louisville the next game, ushering a close to Wilkins’ magical three years in Chattanooga before embarking on a lengthy career in the NBA and signifying Arnold’s final game as UTC’s coach.

The next two seasons ended with first round NIT losses at The Roundhouse as Mack McCarthy took over the helm of UTC’s basketball program. After losing to Georgia by 26 points earlier in the ’85-’86 schedule, the Mocs fared better in the rematch but lost 95-81 to the Dawgs with 6,941 in attendance in the NIT opener. Cleveland State came to Chattanooga the next year and thrashed the Mocs, 92-73, bringing a close to a four-year run of NIT appearances.

The Mocs have made it to the NCAA Tournament nine more times since White and his teammates earned the first three berths, but this season will mark the first NIT appearance in 38 years. It did not provide White with the ultimate satisfaction of making into the Big Dance, but it gave him two more games to compete along side his teammates.

“I was telling my wife today I loved Chattanooga,” said White, who started all 122 games at UTC and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. “It was an era when we won and put Chattanooga basketball on the map. I loved going there, and my daughter went to school there, and now I got a grandson (Teryck White) that's coming out. He's playing in the state tournament, and they say he’s Willie White 2.0.”

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com