Basketball cruises to 103-60 exhibtion win at McKenzie

Freshman Josh Odem, from Johnson City, Tenn., was throwing no-look passes and racing up and down the court, walk-on freshman point guard Dontay Hampton, from Chattanooga, was leading the Mocs like a veteran and another freshman walk-on, Drew Baker, from Knoxville, was nabbing five rebounds to complete his improbable journey from manager to player to actually playing. All this while sophomore Ricky Taylor, from Brownsville, Tenn., made nine of 13 from the field and totaled 27 points.

It was just a 103-60 exhibition win over Tennessee Wesleyan Saturday night, but guessing who may step up for this year's men's basketball team may be an ongoing crapshoot.

Taylor and junior Ridge McKeither, from Danville, Va., combined for 44 points, but the sparks came from Odem and Hampton.

"Josh Odem may be our best player out there," Coach John Shulman said. "He's not scared of anything. Nothing rattles him. He goes out there in his first college game and he's the one that made the plays. He's the one that got us going early."

Hampton was the unlikely star at point guard, where sophomore and Vanderbilt transfer Keegan Bell, from Hazel Green, Ala., was expected to split time with sophomore Jasper Williams, from Washington D.C.

"Today, I thought [Hampton] played better than anybody else," Shulman said. "He did what we asked him to do and ran this team."

Bell shot 1-7 from the field and had four turnovers in 18 minutes.

"It was frustrating personally," Bell said. "I was definitely feeling that year off. I hadn't been in the game atmosphere for so long, but I know I'll be fine. It was just a matter of getting my feet wet."

Shulman seconded that by saying Bell would end up being a great player for this team. But the play of Hampton did stir ideas about Williams possibly moving to a position with less depth on the wing.

The Mocs are struggling to fill holes at a number of positions because four potential starters are out for the first part of the season due to injury or suspension.

With that, some not even expecting to play may be pushed into key roles as reserves.

"I didn't expect to be this big of a role this early on," freshman Sam Watson, from Farragut, Tenn., said. "But hopefully I can give the team some big minutes. I got all the jitters out tonight."

Shulman said he expects solid defense and rebounding from Watson, but with such inexperience, the key play could come from anywhere this season for the Mocs.

"It's scary," Shulman said. "Look out there and we've got three walk-ons on the court at the same time. They're going to play a big role."

Shulman is also looking for someone to step up defensively.

"We've got a long way to go defensively," he said. "We got some stops, but I didn't feel like we got stops the way we wanted to get stops."

Defense is fixable, but injuries will hamper the Mocs for a good portion of the first half of the season. Unfortunately for the Mocs, that doesn't change the way Southern Conference teams will play them.

"You could take a poll of the other 11 schools in the league and I don't think one of them feels real bad for us," Shulman said.

The Mocs will need players to rise to the occasion, but who that will be is anyone's guess.