Chattanooga's first-year head women's basketball coach Shawn Poppie has had a successful year leading this group of Mocs as the team finished the season 20-12, third in the Southern Conference, and last week won the Southern Conference Tournament by upsetting top seeded Wofford.
Before Poppie arrived in Chattanooga for his first opportunity as a head college basketball coach he spent six seasons in Blacksburg, VA as an assistant coach on Kenny Brooks' staff and now less than a year later the two friends will square off against one another on college basketball's biggest stage.
UTC was awarded a 16 seed and in turn will take on the top seeded Hokies on Friday at 5:30p ET in the Seattle Regional.
This is going to be an extremely tall task for the Mocs as VA Tech is loaded with high end talent. Here are a couple of the names you should be on the lookout for in this one.
Elizabeth Kitley, C
The size advantage that Kitley gives the Hokies is REAL. She's 6'6" and leads Tech in three major categories, scoring (18.6 ppg), rebounds (10.5), and blocks (2.3). She is going to be the girl the Mocs are going to have to try to slow down but it's not going to be easy as she's one of the best players in the country and has plenty of experience being a senior.
Georgia Amoore, G
The junior guard has been very good for the Hokies this season. Generally when you talk about a guard you ask, is she a pass first or shoot first guard? In Amoore's case she's able to do both extremely well. She's the team's second leading scorer (15.3), leads the team in assists (5.3), and is their best three-point shooter.
Taylor Soule, F
Another girl that might give Chattanooga some trouble is Taylor Soule as she stands just south of six feet tall. She's the team's third leading scorer (11.3), second leading rebounder (5.7), and has very active hands on defense forcing just over a steal per game.
All in all this is going to be a true David vs. Goliath match-up but if there's anyone outside the Virginia Tech program that knows this team, it's Shawn Poppie and we'll see if he can help strategize his team to a win.