UTC women's head basketball coach Jim Foster directs players during the Lady Mocs' basketball practice and their Mocs Club Basketball Open House event Oct. 29, 2014, in Chattanooga.For the second consecutive year, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team will be the nightcap of a season-opening doubleheader with the Mocs men's team, as the women again host a team from a power conference.
Beyond that, almost everything else is different for Jim Foster's team, as the Hall of Fame coach begins his second season in Chattanooga.
The defending Southern Conference champions begin play tonight against Villanova with a revamped lineup facing a massively upgraded schedule that includes games against 2014 Women's Final Four participants Notre Dame and Stanford as well as other tough tests against Tennessee, Butler and South Florida.
"What (former UTC coach) Wes (Moore) did here is phenomenal, so the only thing we could really do is just tweak it to up the schedule a little bit," Foster said at Tuesday's media luncheon. "Now, your players have to stay tough because you're putting them in environments and against teams where we're going from playing the bottom of (other leagues) to playing league champions. Tennessee, Notre Dame and Stanford won the SEC, the ACC and the Pac-12 last year."
Redshirt senior Destiny Bramblett will be back to help fellow senior Ka'Vonne Towns lead the Mocs after Bramblett took last season off recovering from ankle surgery and was sidelined for several weeks this summer after breaking her other ankle.
"I feel good. Some days are better than others, but that's just because of age," she said. "I'm about to be 23, and I'm playing with a bunch of younger kids and sophomores and freshmen. It's completely different. They don't understand the pain and what I'm going through."
Tonight's matchup with Villanova -- picked to finish third in the Big East -- will be the first day of a three-team Tip-Off Challenge that also features South Florida. Villanova and South Florida will play Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., and UTC will take on USF on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Mocs will have a different look after the loss of five seniors, including SoCon player and overall female athlete of the year Taylor Hall, as well as Ashlyn Dewart, Faith Dupree, Alex Black and Meghan Downs.
More will be expected of Bramblett in her return to the rotation than she had been asked to do in her three seasons prior to Foster's arrival.
"She's got to figure out how to be more than a 12- to 15-minute player," Foster said. "That's what her career has been, and we have to challenge her to be more than that.
"I think it's more of the mental part. She's got the skills, she's got a good basketball IQ, but is she ready between the ears to handle more responsibility and more expectations?"
Bramblett and Towns will lead a more athletic group that is expected to use speed to push the pace on both ends of the court. Sophomore Jasmine Joyner will take over as the primary post player, and Adryanna Gilbert and Chelsey Shumpert are the team's returning starters. Sophomore Moses Johnson and junior Alicia Payne bring experience off the bench, but newcomers Anna Claire Noblit, Sydney Vanlandingham, Kelana Gilbert and redshirt freshman Ansley Chilton could be asked to contribute early.
"I think we're a very tallented team," Bramblett said before a preseason practice last week. "We're completely different than the (previous) four years that I've been here. We're going to be more of a running team, more up-tempo. And I think we can be a solid defensive team as well."
The challenge for the Mocs will be getting Villanova and longtime coach Harry Perretta out of their comfort zone -- which Foster knows won't be easy.
"Harry's been running the same offense for 37 years," he said. "They spread the floor with five (players) and they shoot a lot of 3s. Their bigs play away from the basket, and they pass and cut and move and have a lot of backdoors."
"Connecticut and Notre Dame have gotten out of the [Big East] where they had to play them, and now they won't schedule them."
The Wildcats feature preseason All-Big East selection Caroline Coyer and her twin sister, Katherine, at the guard positions. The junior siblings averaged 17.5 points per game last season, and Caroline had 115 assists with only 30 turnovers in 32 games.
Villanova will be without senior center Emily Leer and sophomore guard Samantha Wilkes, both of whom are recovering from injuries. Leer averaged 9.2 points per game last season.
The challenge of a tough schedule is certain to be daunting for the Mocs, but Foster and Bramblett agreed that the lessongs learned under fire in November and December will pay off in Southern Conference play and beyond.
"Right now all we hear about is that we have the hardest schedule of a mid-major team," Bramblett said. "but it will prepare us for March. If we win our conference, which hopefully we will do, we will be prepared for teams like that.
"(Foster) doesn't just want us to go to the NCAA (tournament). He wants to win the NCAA tournament, which all of us do. This is going to prepare us for that moment."
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.