For the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball teams to reach their goals of winning Southern Conference championships and advancing to the NCAA tournaments, they had to suffer some.
They had to experience losses.
Face adversity and overcome it.
Over a four-week span in January and February, each UTC team was presented a certain level of conflict in the form of a trio of losses that could have shaped lesser teams differently. Instead, both sets of Mocs learned from them and now have the hardware to show for it.
The preseason favorites to win their respective conference championships did just that, but the roads to get there had some potholes.
They're about to learn their NCAA tournament destinations, the men tonight at 6 and the women Monday at 7 p.m. Both programs are holding viewing parties at the University Center auditorium on campus. Fans are welcome at no charge.
"This is a very exciting time to be at UTC," women's junior guard Queen Alford said. "I think this is the first time (in seven years) the men have got (NCAA) recognition, and it's very fun to be a part of it.
"For both teams to be able to play in the NCAA tournament is exciting, period."
For the women, adversity struck in late January. Back-to-back losses at Mercer and Samford, after 52 consecutive regular-season conference wins, left the Mocs in third place in the league standings around the midway point of the season.
They've since run off 11 straight wins and earned the program's fourth consecutive NCAA bid.
"We're playing a lot better now," Alford said. "We're working really well, we know our personnel and we know what to do out there."
In front of a crowd of 5,718 - largest attendance of the season - and a chance to run away with the regular-season title, the UTC men played what might have been their worst performance of the season on Feb. 20, losing 79-64 to UNC Greensboro. After the game, coach Matt McCall said he thought "the moment was too big for us."
"The Greensboro game was the best thing that happened to us," McCall said. "The stage was set: We win the game, we win the league at home. There were so many factors in the game and we got caught up in the game and not in doing our job. I think it was the greatest learning experience for our team going forward, and I think it was the reason we were able to win Monday night (in the tournament final against ETSU).
"Everything was at stake Monday night. Just trying to get the guys to understand that we've got to do our job and can't get caught up in the moment, so when the moment happened, we handled it well. It was like 'Oh, my goodness. What do we do now?'"
The Mocs followed the loss to the Spartans with wins over Samford and Virginia Military Institute to clinch the title, then beat Samford, Western Carolina and East Tennessee State to advance to the program's first NCAA tournament since 2009.
That road wasn't easy as well, as the tournament games against Western Carolina and ETSU were basically road games in front of hostile anti-UTC crowds.
"Those two teams are the hottest teams in the SoCon," McCall said. "It goes back to our focus and being locked in. I give our guys a lot of credit; after the experience against Greensboro, they reshifted the focus back to the job and understood that was the most important thing."
Most importantly, the Mocs had to get over the mental hurdle of five consecutive one-and-dones in SoCon tournaments. As much as they didn't want it to hover over their collective heads, the relief on the players' faces after the Samford victory were highly visible.
"It's an awesome feeling to get where we've gotten," senior guard Eric Robertson said. "The past three years we've lost our first game in the conference tournament. Going out my senior year, all the summer workouts and offseason workouts, they feel like they've finally paid off.
"It's an awesome feeling."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.