Basketball Mocs have bonded on hills
David Jean-Baptiste — the lone returning active player for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team — called dealing with adversity the “perfect recipe for team bonding,” something that was going to be necessary for the program this preseason.
Coach Lamont Paris gave the Mocs no choice in the matter.
Running downtown this summer, the coach saw some hills at Renaissance Park and decided they would be perfect for his team to train on. The Mocs ran the hills three different times, choosing a fourth to run the stairs at McKenzie Arena due to weather. They built up the scaling of the slopes incrementally, reaching 40 times up and down the hill this past Sunday.
“It was a challenge, both mentally and physically,” Jean-Baptiste said Tuesday. “Everything was hard, going up and going down, but after we’re down, it’s a relieving feeling. Dudes were struggling; dudes had each other’s back. You’d have to help guys get up the hill and walk down, and it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ll get through this together.’”
To help encourage the players, the coaches ran some as well. They also placed logos of the Mocs’ opponents on the way up, with players challenged to grab the logos and put them at the top of the hill once they arrived.
Although the team is largely new, the Mocs are not necessarily inexperienced as they had their first official practice Tuesday at the Chattem Practice Facility. Five of the players were in the program last season, although freshman forwards Justin Brown and Duane Moss took medical redshirts. Jean-Baptiste played all 33 games last year, and transfers Jerry Johnson and Ramon Vila also have Division I
experience.
South Alabama transfer A.J. Caldwell and Maryland transfer Alex Tostada — both walk-ons sitting this season out — also have been in Division I programs, while junior college transfers Rod Johnson and Jonathan Scott have two years of college experience.
So it’s not as though the entire team is green. But the players weren’t very familiar with each other, and now they’re somewhat better acquainted.
“I think it was good for the team,” senior Thomas Smallwood, a native of France who played the past three seasons at Alabama-Birmingham, said of the hill work. “It helped to see who’s tough, who needs to will themselves to do hard things, so it was an interesting experience.
“We have a lot of young guys that needed to be shown early
it’s not easy. I’m not familiar with high school basketball, but from what I hear some guys have it a little easy in high school, and it’s important to know when you get to college, you’re competing for a spot. It’s a different league, but it’s important to them and they’re ready for it. They did an awesome job on the hills, and hopefully it translates to the court, starting today.”
The Mocs didn’t always deal well with adversity in Paris’s first season, which ended with a 10-23 record. The team lost seven players since then — one to graduation, one to the professional ranks and five to transfer, with four going to Division I universities and the other to a junior college — and with all of the new additions, the new roster was going to need something that could help the team bond.
That something was hills. “It’s not easy,” Paris said. “A couple of guys failed a couple of the reps, but you’re seeing guys help other guys down the hill. It’s an environment I’d like to help facilitate, but not what I said specifically to do. As we’re bringing it in (after the running), guys are very physically fatigued, but their arms are around each other and they’re listening. I can’t wait; I think this group has a chance to be really special at the end. Those teams I’ve been around always overachieve in a major way, and it’s good to see that.
“There’s a lot of excitement to get going with these guys, I’ve had a lot of fun in the gym with them. It’s a different vibe, different feel, and I feel blessed to be able to coach those guys.”