By Alex Forkner | @AlexFork3

aforkner@kykernel.com

DULUTH, Ga. – UK Hoops’ hopes of repeating as SEC regular season champs were dashed due to a couple of close losses and a resurgent Tennessee team, which ultimately claimed that trophy.

Then, UK looked poised to at least leave its mark on the league history books and win its second SEC Tournament title, running through the first two rounds to meet No. 19 Texas A&M. But the third time was the charm for the Aggies, who took the tourney crown with a 75-67 victory.

“We’re just disappointed,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “We’ve been here three out of the last four years and haven’t been able to get a victory. It’s very, very disappointing.”

Right now, UK’s past doesn’t matter. It’s present, which must be painful for the players and a coach who wanted so badly to win this tournament, can’t matter either.

The Cats’ sights must be set on the future.

On March 18, UK will find out its seeding and destination for the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Before the first game was even played, both Mitchell and his players emphasized a run to the Final Four was this season’s ultimate goal.

Sophomore guard Bria Goss said the team could harness what they feel after the loss to A&M as they advance to the next and biggest stage.

“When you want something really bad and you come up short, the pain is there,” Goss said. “But I’m just going to use this pain as motivation to get better because we have a lot more basketball to play.”

Senior guard A’dia Mathies echoed her sentiments.

“We are going to use this game to move forward because we’re not going to let this game define our season,” Mathies said. “We will make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.”

UK will likely end up as a No. 3 seed, a No. 4 seed at the lowest. Had the Cats won on Sunday they had a strong case for a No. 2 seed, but the committee is unlikely to seed a team which didn’t win its conference so high.

Should UK slip to a No. 4 seed, that would mean playing one of the tournament’s top four teams in the Sweet 16, which could mean the Cats would square off with Baylor, Notre Dame, Connecticut or Stanford.

With those four teams standing in UK’s way only two games into the quest for a Final Four or National Title, a deep run would look unlikely.

UK is a talented, deep team, and its style of play can help the Cats hang with just about anyone, but those four teams as good as it gets.

Should UK be seeded as a No. 3, the Cats wouldn’t meet a No. 1 seed until the Elite Eight, which UK has reached two of the past three years. They would, however, probably face a No. 2 seed in the Sweet 16, likely teams such as Duke, California, Penn State or Tennessee — who the Cats have already beaten this year.

The slate of No. 2 seeds presents more favorable matchups for UK, increasing the likelihood of a mini-upset to vault UK into the Elite Eight to face one of those No. 1 seeds.

There’s also the slim possibility of one of the top four seeds being upset before reaching UK. Were that the case, the Cats could face a physically and emotionally drained opponent running on fumes from a major upset.

On the other hand, UK could run into a team of destiny with pure adrenaline coursing through its veins.

Regardless of all this prognostication, UK first must refocus and regroup.

The Cats waivered a bit from their identity in the loss to the Aggies, letting A&M control the pace and out-hustle and out-muscle them.

Mitchell said the team needs to recapture its “toughness” heading into the NCAA Tournament.

“A large majority of the season we’ve been really good and really tough,” he said. “I think what I’ll try to do is figure out the best way to get our team in a position to be ready to play in the NCAA tournament.”

For Mathies, the team’s future will come down to the team’s mentality.

“We need to be sharper and focused throughout the whole game,” she said. We can’t have any lapses. We need to (play) every four-minute segment like our last. We didn’t do that (against Texas A&M), but we’re definitely going to do that moving forward.”

Moving forward is what this team must do, now. The past is passed, and a great accomplishment is still on the table. How far will UK go?