KNOXVILLE -- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team did almost everything right this season. The Mocs were perfect in Southern Conference play, beat Top 10 teams in Tennessee and Stanford, had a 25-game winning streak, finished the regular season ranked No. 17 in the nation and were the No. 7 seed in their opening game of the NCAA tournament against 10th-seeded Pittsburgh.
The season still ended in yet another first-round loss as Pitt beat the Mocs 51-40 on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
So what will it take for UTC to make the next step and become a team that does more than make the tournament field. What will it take to win and advance?
After two seasons at UTC, coach Jim Foster said after Saturday's loss that he delivered a simple message to his team, which loses only two seniors in Ka'Vonne Towns and Destiny Bramblett.
"Work harder. Get better," Foster said when asked what the Mocs need to do. "We have a bunch of freshmen and sophomores out there that got some experience. Get in the weight room. Get stronger. Understand the commitment that is necessary to be successful at (this) level.
"Getting there is one thing; winning is another. The offseason is about you. The offseason is as players to get better. Teams get better during the course of the year; players need to get better in the offseason. That was the challenge to them after the game."
Sophomore post player Jasmine Joyner, who finished the season with 132 blocked shots and scored 10 points in the loss to Pitt, said that for all the success UTC had this season there's still the need for someone to take charge when things get tough as they did against the Panthers.
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"We were missing that strong leader to step up," she said. "I think that's our first step to becoming a better team. We have to find that leader who will step up and give us some order.
"And we have to look at ourselves this summer. We have to work harder so we can get here next year and then go further."
That lack of leadership was evident late in Saturday's loss, as none of UTC's players could make a play down the stretch after tying the game at 33 with 12 minutes remaining. Joyner got into foul trouble and eventually fouled out -- the first time a Moc fouled out all season -- and the Mocs missed shot after shot when they needed it most.
One player Foster singled out who needs to improve by next season is freshman Keiana Gilbert. At times early in the season she was outstanding -- notably scoring 27 points in UTC's win over then-No. 4 Tennessee on Nov. 26 -- but on Saturday she was 4-for-14 shooting and 0-for-3 from 3-point range. After starting strong with six points in the first half, she was held to one basket in the final 20 minutes.
After a three-game stretch of double-figure games in SoCon play at McKenzie Arena in late January, Gilbert scored 10 or more points only three times in the final 11 games -- and never more than 12 -- allowing defenders to stop guarding her as closely and to play help defense on her teammates. She continued to help the team with rebounds, assists and hustle plays, but Foster said she needs to become a better scoring option in her sophomore season.
"Keiana is going to be a very good player, but when people don't guard her (she needs to make shots)," he said. "Her summer project is going to be to work on her shot and make people guard her, because if you get up and you have to she is going to go around most (opposing players).
"Very talented, athletic player but sometimes they take away your strength, and until you make your weaknesses (into) strengths you are susceptible to that."
The good news for UTC is that a lot of players return from this year's team that has had success and learned how to win, so a lot of experience will return next season. Now a go-to player needs to emerge to help the Mocs avoid yet another disappointing day in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"We're going to have to step up, because this feeling, I can tell the whole team doesn't like it," Joyner said. "So we're going to have to find a leader.
"We have lots of people who can be a potential leader, like me, (Alicia Payne) and Moses Johnson. We have Queen Alford -- she's a (redshirt) transfer -- and she can be a really good leader. We have lots of people who can be that leader. We just have to find that person."
The search for that leader starts today.
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.