Wakeup Call: Mom returns from Iraq to surprise son during Tennessee State pregame meeting (video)

Nov 23, 2011, 9:00 AM EDT

Pregame team meetings in college basketball are typically reserved for strategy, athletic tape application and various threats on what will happen if certain players don’t box out. But for Tennessee State and redshirt freshman T.J. Rhett on Tuesday night, it became tear-jerking reunion. Coach John Cooper was addressing the team before its game with North Carlina when he suddenly announced that Rhett had a special visitor — his mom, Stephanie, an E-5 sergeant in the Army National Guard currently deployed in Iraq, whom he hadn’t seen in three months.

“When I saw her, I was in disbelief,” the younger Rhett said by phone after the game. “I hadn’t seen her in so long and I hadn’t talked to her in the past three or four days. I didn’t have any clue what was going on and I was getting a little worried how she was doing. But when she popped up in the locker room, I was shocked and relieved.

“She’s had a huge influence on my life,” Rhett said. “She’s like my best friend. I talk to her almost every day. I can talk to her about anything, girls, basketball, school, anything. No matter what, I can talk to her.”

Stephanie Rhett won’t have to return to Iraq for two weeks, meaning that she, her husband (former South Carolina star Joe Rhett) and son will get to spend Thanksgiving together. TSU lost to the Tar Heels, 102-69, but really — who cares?

***
ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Fine! But when some great homicidal maniac attacks you with a bunch of loganberries, don’t come crying to me!