McCall focuses on better days,
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — It wasn’t the ending anyone expected a few months ago.
Yet with 40 seconds to play in Saturday’s Southern Conference tournament quarterfinal against Wofford and his team down 15 points, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball coach Matt McCall conceded the ending had arrived, a couple of weeks earlier than the Mocs and their fans would have liked.
McCall took senior starters Johnathan Burroughs-Cook, Casey Jones, Tre’ McLean and Justin Tuoyo out of the game, with a fifth senior, Greg Pryor, standing nearby with a cast on the hand he injured after a loss to Mercer on Feb. 25.
And with that, a core of players who had ascended to the top very quickly during the beginning of McCall’s tenure at UTC had come crashing down to earth amid a plethora of rumors concerning national anthem protocol, locker room behavior and a February to forget.
“We’ll get this corrected,” McCall said tersely after the Mocs’ 79-67 loss in their opening game at the tournament.
He spent more time during the postgame news conference talking about the legacies of the players leaving the program. Jones, Pryor and Tuoyo are among the top 13 scorers in program history, with Tuoyo passing Derrick Kirce (1990-91) on a layup with 2:18 remaining in Saturday’s game. He also leaves as UTC’s all-time leader in shots blocked and a top-six rebounder.
UTC began last season, McCall’s first in Chattanooga, with mild expectations. The Mocs quickly changed that with wins against Georgia, Illinois and Dayton, the last a day after Jones dislocated his foot and was lost for the season.
They finished with a school-record 29 wins last season and now have 48 during McCall’s tenure. Three of those wins were against Power Five conference teams — including a season-opening win at Tennessee this season — and they finished with a 3-4 record against those teams after losing 26 straight against high-major teams during a 10-year span.
“I think this senior class should be celebrated,” McCall said. “I don’t think this senior class should be remembered, at all, for how this season ended. I think they should be remembered by the best season in school history, the best record in school history. They should be remembered by beating two SEC teams. I think they should be remembered by going on the road and beating Dayton and snapping one of the longest home win streaks in the country. I think this senior class should be remembered for winning the regular season and the tournament (last season).
“They’ve accomplished everything they could possibly accomplish as a basketball team and as a group. It hasn’t been easy for them. Some of these guys were on their third head coach. They should be celebrated, throughout our arena, throughout campus. I’ve never been more proud of a group of individuals and what they’ve done for this basketball program and for our school. These guys need to be celebrated, and that’s the bottom line.
“There will never be another Justin Tuoyo, Tre’ McLean, Greg Pryor, Casey Jones or Johnathan Burroughs-Cook.”
As he spoke Saturday, McLean and Tuoyo sat at the podium, heads down as the finite reality of their careers started to creep in. It started with 40 seconds to play, and both sat with that same posture at the end of the bench as the final buzzer sounded before getting up and congratulating Wofford players. Each shared an extended hug with Wofford point guard Eric Garcia and Terriers coach Mike Young, who has spoken highly of each of the UTC seniors this season.
They’ll go on from here — McLean, Jones and Tuoyo have already graduated; Burroughs-Cook and Pryor graduate in May — but they’ll leave behind a legacy that can’t be forgotten, despite the final ending.
“It’s tough right now — just know what we’ve been through as a team and with us seniors,” McLean said of seeing the big picture. “We didn’t want it to end like this. No one thought it would end like this.
“We just have to live with it at this point and move forward.”