Faculty, students, alumni and Chattanooga community members packed outside of McKenzie Arena on Friday to welcome home the newly crowned NIT champions.
The UTC men’s basketball team made history the night before at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, becoming the first Southern Conference school to win the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu, a mechatronics professor and head of the Department of Engineering Management and Technology, was among the faculty waiting to greet the team.
“We always support them because they deserve it,” said Kaplanoglu, a Mocs Club member and former European professional basketball coach. “They do well at practice. They do well at everything. I still have poison in my blood for basketball. I never miss games.”
Tom Griscom, a 1971 UTC alum and former White House Communications Director, made the trek to Indianapolis and back to Chattanooga to be there.
“I have a long family history here,” Griscom said. “My great aunt was chairman of the English department at the University. I have an older brother who went here and graduated. Of course, I did. I met my wife here. UTC is part of our lives, and we enjoy watching the athletic program teams here.”
Griscom said the energy inside Hinkle Fieldhouse was electric and felt like a game in the McKenzie Arena Roundhouse.
“You want these young men and women to know there are people out there who care about them,” he said.
Senior communication major and political science minor Guy DeWeese was among the students supporting the team.
“My heart rate was going through the roof the whole game,” DeWeese said. “Seeing Dan Earl with Trey Bonham and Honor Huff together and the fans chanting one more year for Honor just means something more.
“My freshman year, we won the Southern Conference tournament. David Jean-Baptiste hit that famous shot. This felt like a full circle moment.”
An 8-0 run to start the game, Trey Bonham’s half-court buzzer beater and Garrison Keeslar’s game-winning elbow jumper propelled the Mocs to an instant classic 85-84 overtime victory over the University of California, Irvine on Thursday night.
The road to the title was paved with hard-fought battles, including a first-round triple-overtime win against Middle Tennessee State University, a quarterfinal matchup against Bradley University decided on a Bonham three in the closing seconds and a hard-fought 80-73 win over Loyola University Chicago in the semifinals.
In the championship game, Bonham and freshman forward Collin Mulholland led the way for the Mocs, scoring 19 points each. Mulholland dropped a career-high five 3-pointers and Bonham corralled a team-high 10 rebounds.
Bonham’s tournament performances earned him the NIT Most Outstanding Player award.
Honor Huff, the Division I leader in three-pointers made (131), added another 14 points.
Senior guard Keeslar dominated all phases of the game, scoring 14 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and facilitating a team-high five assists. His midrange jumper with 11 seconds on the clock was the deciding bucket.
“We’ve dealt with adversity all year,” said Huff, a junior communication major from Brooklyn, New York, at the welcome celebration. “We had injuries at the beginning of the season, and we came into the conference after starting at eight and five. There were a lot of doubts about us and we figured it out quickly and ended up going on a run.
“To be able to do it with this team, the camaraderie that we have and the fanbase that we have … dealing with close games, we’re just a mature group. That’s what we do. We’ve been able to come together and really hone in on everything that we talked about in the summer. To get this done—it’s a great feeling.”
The Mocs tied a program record with 29 wins this season. It was their deepest postseason run since winning the 1977 Division II National Championship.
Dan Earl set the school record for most wins by a head coach in his first three years with 68 and ranks second in program history with five postseason victories.
Huff, Bonham and Earl all started their careers at VMI and—together—got to hoist the NIT trophy at UTC.
“We lost in the championship last year,” Huff said. “We lost in the semifinal this year. To be able to do something special for this community and fan base is special. Just look around at the support we’re getting. To be able to reciprocate that with something like a championship is the best feeling in the world.”
Photos by Angela Foster, courtesy UTC.