Break from basketball boosted Mocs guard
Break from basketball boosted Mocs guard David Jean-Baptiste
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga guard David Jean-Baptiste enters his fourth Southern Conference tournament ranked 13th in program history in career points with 1,271. The 6-foot-1, 193-pound Jean-Baptiste, a fifth-year senior from Miami, has averaged 16.5 points per game this season, second among the Mocs, and was an All-SoCon second-team selection despite missing four games after putting his name in the NCAA transfer portal five games into the season.
He sat down for a conversation with the Times Free Press in advance of today’s 2:15 p.m. quarterfinal between fourth-seeded UTC (18-7) and fifth-seeded East Tennessee State (12-11) at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina. The Mocs swept the season series with their rivals from Johnson City by a combined four points, beating the Buccaneers 67-65 on the road on Feb. 6 and 53-51 nine days later at McKenzie Arena:
Q: How much better do you feel now than you did before leaving?
A: It’s more like a relief of being back, and being out there and playing. Not playing for a while and getting that release helped me mentally be in a better place. Being out there with the guys, being around basketball, the practices, the games, putting on my shoes, all that comes into play. It gave me that relief, and I felt good.
Q: I know you’re a social person, so I imagine the early part of the pandemic was tough because interactions were really limited then as opposed to now. What was the hardest part about everything that has happened since last March? What did you
learn about yourself during that time alone?
A:
I learned that I was the only person that was stopping me from being me in other ways. I doubted myself, and so much has changed that you find yourself isolated at times. I think the biggest part was the self-doubt, both off the court and on the court, because I didn’t have the same outlets I did. So erasing that doubt from myself was the biggest thing.
Q: Do you think people appreciate what student-athletes in general have had to go through this season to ensure games are being played?
A:
I would hope so, but as humans we all go through the same thing, we all go through something, so I think if you put things in that perspective, people do understand what student-athletes go through, the ins and outs and everything. It’s one thing to know about it, but it’s another thing to go through it, and that’s a huge factor.
Q: In August it seemed impossible for you all to think that you’d be playing in a conference tournament, but here you are. How nice of a feeling is that for this team?
A:
It’s a grateful feeling, man, to have any game, but especially for this team, the players and all the work we put in the offseason. It feels good; I think these guys deserve it. The underclassmen are working their butts off, and I think those guys deserve it. These next few games, our feeling is, ‘Why not?’ We weren’t supposed to have a season, games are getting canceled left and right, so why not play and give it everything we’ve got? We’re grateful for it and we’ve got an opportunity, so we’re going to go out and leave it all
on the court.
Q: You’ve had some pretty good moments in Asheville. Which one stands out the most?
A:
The UNC Greensboro game last year. (The sixth-seeded Mocs beat the third-seeded Spartans 77-68.) We had beat them the game before, and I remember the buildup to it in the locker room, and everybody was saying, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose. We’re here; we’ve got nothing to lose.’ I remember (former UTC guard) Maurice (Commander) saying, ‘They put on
pants just like us,’ and when we got out on the court, something came over me and I realized that we didn’t really have anything to lose, so what’s there to be afraid of? It was a fun game.
Q: How much fun are you having now?
A:
Oh man, it’s fun to be out there. It’s fun to have games, fun to have practices. It’s been a blessing, it’s been a journey, so let’s stay at it, keep at it, and let’s make this tournament a good one.”