Mar. 9—They started gathering in front of McKenzie Arena a little before 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Some carried signs — "See Moc City" was my personal favorite. Others brought basketballs to be autographed. A lot of them just wanted their pictures made with various members of the Southern Conference Tournament champion University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team.

They seemed especially keen on getting photos made with sixth-year senior David Jean-Baptiste, which was understandable since he hit the shot heard 'round the sporting world on Monday night by swishing a 35-foot 3-pointer just ahead of the horn to shock Furman 64-63 in overtime and claim the SoCon tourney title and automatic NCAA tourney bid that goes with it.

So by the time the bus carrying the victors pulled up in front of McKenzie at precisely 2:30 p.m. — and with a police escort to announce their arrival, no less — the crowd gathered to celebrate their heroes home from Asheville, North Carolina, easily totaled 175 Moc Maniacs, if not more than 200.

The school's pep band playing the UTC fight song as the bus door opened, head coach Lamont Paris was the first to walk down the steps. The roar grew even louder when Jean-Baptiste followed him carrying the championship trophy and someone in the crowd screamed, "We love you," as individual cellphones were held high to record the moment.

"Amazing," said Paris. "These guys will remember this forever."

Chattanooga in general and UTC fans in particular will remember and love the moment Baptiste nailed that triple for at least forever, if not longer, if such a thing be possible.

For now, or at least until another buzzer-beater to win a championship comes along to rival DJB's, the whole country is watching and discussing the Mocs, your Mocs, OUR Mocs.

"I think I've had close to 2,000 texts," said Jean-Baptiste as he signed autographs and posed for pictures for more than 40 minutes on little or no sleep. "My phone's crashed twice. I'll always be tied to that moment. And no words can describe it. It's crazy."

How crazy? Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who knows a thing or two about last-second heroics, tweeted "Chattanooga at the buzzer!!!!!!!! Can't beat #MarchMadness."

Beyond that, the Today Show and Fox and Friends highlighted the shot on their Tuesday morning shows. ESPN's Scott Van Pelt tabbed the whole game "The Best Thing I Saw" on Monday.

It also has undeniable symmetry to the biggest accomplishment in UTC Division I hoops history (the Mocs did win the Division II national championship in 1977, after all), which was the Sweet 16 run of 1997, some 25 years ago.

Then, as now, the Mocs reached the NCAA Tournament on a late shot, though Chris Mims' putback of a Johnny Taylor miss wasn't quite as dramatic as DJB's.

Nevertheless, Taylor's son John Jr. is on the current team, though redshirting, and as a lifelong Mocs fan and friend of the program Eric Gray texted John Sr. during the victory celebration: "Dude, I was doing this with you 25 years ago."

Perhaps that's why when Gray returned to work on Tuesday after arriving home from Asheville at 4 a.m., his co-workers asked, "What's wrong with your voice?"

Said the younger Taylor after exiting the bus: "(Dad's) so proud of us."

Asked if he'd told his dad this team's tourney-clinching win was better, he said, "No, but I should have."

Less than 18 hours after the ending, Paris admitted he shouldn't have called for a timeout that the officials never saw just before Jean-Baptiste's winner.

"We would have had around two seconds coming out of the timeout," he said, then grinned and added, "We were going to hit a 3-pointer to win it either way."

But had he called timeout, would he have actually gone for the win or a two-pointer to tie and force a second overtime?

"Whichever was open," he said. "All our plays for that situation have a two-point and three-point option."

Of course, he was more than a little happy that he didn't have to rely on those plays. So how many times has he thanked the man upstairs that the refs didn't see his timeout signal, Paris said, "One really good one."

The finish, of course, was better than really good. Ninety-year-old Dale Rutemeyer, who still shoots photographs for the UTC athletic department, said as he waited for the bus to arrive, "I'm not sure we've ever had a better ending around here than that one."

And the memories of that shot, and what UTC fans did when it went in, will never go away.

"When the kid from Tulsa (Jeriah Horne) hit that halfcourt shot to beat Central Florida on Sunday, I said, "Holy (blankety-blank)," said UTC assistant media relations director Anne Wehunt. "When David hit his shot, I said the same thing, only a lot louder."

Paris got a phone call from Marquette coach Shaka Smart on Tuesday morning telling the UTC coach how Smart's daughter Zora picks a team to root for each season beyond her dad's.

"She picked us," Paris said. "Shaka said when the shot went in, she went bananas."

The last fans heading home from McKenzie a little before 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, Paris about to return to the 572 text messages he had yet to respond to after attempting to answer them all for more than four hours on the bus, the coach thought back to another iconic shot from this month 24 years ago — Valparaiso player and one-time Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew's triple at the horn to beat Ole Miss in the NCAA tourney.

"David's shot is the new Bryce Drew shot," said Paris. "They're going to show that (on television) every March for an eternity."

And each time they do, you'll be able to see way more than seven smiling faces from Moc City.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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