David Blackburn spent part of Sunday afternoon watching the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball dismantle Elon 77-44.
He’d already spent most of the weekend talking with administrators from around the league, watched the Southern Conference operate two basketball tournaments at the same.
And he met with the fans about town, in the hotel and while seated in the U.S. Cellular.
The feedback, despite the men’s team losing on Saturday 62-55 to Georgia Southern in the quarterfinals, seemed uplifting to the first-year athletics director.
Under first-year coach Will Wade the Mocs flipped their record from 13-19 last season to 18-14 this year and earned the No. 2 seed behind Davidson for the SoCon tournament. They were the preseason pick to finish seventh.
UTC also saw a 19.5 percent increase in attendance from an average of 2,788 to 3,895 including a crowd of 6,648 against UNCG which was the largest since Stephen Curry and Davidson appeared in McKenzie Arena.