Got my eye on the Chattanooga game

Have to really wonder what frame of mind the Mocs are in for this NIT game tonight. 

Chattanooga dominated the Southern conference this year. They start a grad transfer, 3 seniors and a junior, of which 4 out of the 5 starters made either 1st or 2nd team All conference. 

They blew thru their first two opponents in the So Con tournament and were riding a 12 game win streak in which they hadn't lost in 45 days. Except for one close loss against Samford and the Mocs had lost exactly once in the last 2 months. 

If anyone saw the So Con tournament final with Chattanooga vs Furman you know that the Mocs were within a minute and a half of heading to the field of 64. Some turnovers and bone head plays forced this game into OT in which the Mocs saw their season down the drain with an 80-77 OT loss. 

I dont remember a post game conference where i saw every player that came to the podium started crying.  They all spoke about how their only goal was always to make the tournament and make some noise. Only their coach mentioned he was happy to get to play more games with this team in the NIT. 

Now they got a 100 mile bus trip north to Murfreesboro to face the Blue Raiders of Conference USA whose team and fans are excited to have an NIT home game and a short line of -2.5. 

Its hard to predict the incentive of some of these teams playing in the NIT and CBI tournaments but take a look at how the Mocs start this game and you may get a sense of their interest in competing tonight. 

Unless Coach Dan Earl (SoCon Coach of the year by the way) has figured out a way to get these guys motivated in the past week, I'm not sure you see the Mocs best effort tonight. 

I'm going to look for a spot to bet Middle TN.

These types of angles intrigue me only with the power 5 conferences not the smaller ones.  The main difference being a lot of these schools in smaller conf don't even get the opportunity to play in the NIT let alone the NCAA Tourney.  They knew the only way in was thru the conf tourney and they didn't even make it to their final like lets say Ark st same situation. So I don't believe they go into this game as it being a lost wasted season rather they didn't do enough and try for redemption in the NIT.  That just imo

Bol

Nice work. GL