The Chattanooga... what?

The Chattanooga Mocs. It's a bird. To be more specific, it's a bird named Scrappy who happens to be a train conductor. For fifty years the official mascot was just a moccasin shoe. Then in the 70's it became a caricatured Cherokee tribesman named Chief Moccanooga. Somebody found that offensive though, so they decided to go with the bird. You're better for knowing that. Last season Chattanooga finished with a 16-16 record. The latter 16 included a 106-65 shellacking against Louisville. The Mocs love jacking up threes. Last season 46 percent of their shots were from distance. They only connected on 32 percent of those attempts though. Probably explains the .500 record. An interesting statistical tidbit from last season was the fact that the Mocs finished with a 12-6 record in the Southern Conference despite allowing 0.04 more points than they scored per possession in conference play. That means that they were probably worse than even their record indicated. In comparison, UK scored 0.12 more points than they allowed in conference play while also losing six times. This season the Mocs seems to have a similar offensive mentality. 43 percent of their attempts have been from the three point line and they've made those shots at a clip of 37 percent. Stop me if you've heard this one before: A mid-major program walks into Rupp Arena and posts a ridiculous three point percentage. I'm expecting something similar to what those two guys from Portland did. UK will blow them out, but somebody on Chattanooga is going to have the game of their life. Here are the most likely candidates: - Omar Wattad is a co-leading scorer for the Mocs with 12.2 points per game. He is a 38 percent shooter from deep and started his college career at Georgetown University. His best game for the Hoyas was against Tennessee. He had nine points and five boards against the Vols. Can't hate him for that. - Ricky Taylor is the other co-leading scorer. Like Wattad, Taylor is a threat from deep. He hasn't attempted as many shots as his running mate but has connected at a better rate. Taylor is a 46 percent three point shooter. The Chattanooga Athletics site says that Ricky knows how to play the drums and is a preacher. That's pretty cool. - Keegan Bell was a highly recruited point guard out of high school. He originally committed to Vandy but transferred to Chattanooga, where he has become Coach John Shulman's most important player. Bell averages seven assists per game while playing 35 minutes per contest. He is on the Bob Cousy Award watch list. - Drazen Zlovaric is from Serbia and played for Georgia for two seasons. In four games against UK, Drazen scored two points and had one rebound. I'd love to play his name in Words with Friends. One of Chattanooga's three wins this season was against something called Warren Wilson College. UK will win this one easily. It'll be interesting to see how the emotions of last week carry over.