EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Morehead State Eagles celebrated on the floor of the Ford Center after they secured an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by defeating Arkansas-Little Rock 69-55 in the championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday night.
While his players huddled around the team bench with pain in their eyes, UALR Coach Darrell Walker had his players stay on the court for a few extra moments to take in the scene before heading back to the locker room.
"Those kids are hurting right now and I'm hurting for them," Walker said in the postgame news conference. "I've played in the NCAA [Tournament], I've experienced it and I wanted my guys to experience it. But, that's why I made them stay out there on the court, to see [Morehead State] celebrate. So that visual stays in their mind and also the misery that they were [feeling]."
With most of his roster set to return next season, Walker is already thinking toward the future and the possibilities that the future could bring.
"[Most] of us are coming back and we're going to regroup again and have a really good basketball team next year," Walker said. "This program is on solid ground. We're moving forward in the right direction and the fan base has gotten better over this season. Things are looking up for us."
While there was a sense of finality to the season following the championship game loss, there is a possibility the Trojans season might not be over. While the NCAA Tournament is now out of the picture, UALR has hopes of a possible invitation to the National Invitation Tournament.
However, an NIT bid is also a long shot due to the team's NET ranking of 182. With no Quad 1 or Quad 2 victories on the season, the Trojans were not able to improve their NET ranking much during conference play despite winning 10 of its last 11 games on the season.
The College Basketball Invitational could be another potential postseason option for the Trojans. The CBI is a 16-team tournament that will be held in Daytona Beach, Fla. from Mar 23-27. With emotions still running high after the loss to Morehead State, Walker didn't speculate on postseason possibilities.
"I'm sure my Athletic Director [George Lee] and [assistant coach Charles Baker] may be looking into it, but we don't want to think about that right now," he said. "Those kids are in there hurting right now."
With the majority of conference tournaments around the country being held this upcoming week, UALR will have to wait at least until Sunday to find out if its season will be extended. Either way, the Trojans will head into next season having taken a big step forward after only winning 10 games all of last season, which they more than doubled this season with 21 wins.
The team fell short of its ultimate goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament, but it made it the OVC title game after not qualifying for the tournament a year ago. Walker said he has even higher aspirations for next season, but on Saturday night he expressed his appreciation for what the team was able to accomplish this year.
"I told them, nobody can take anything away from this season," Walker said. "One thing I like about this team is I saw some passion. I just told them I was proud of them. Don't let anybody tell you this wasn't a heck of a season for Little Rock basketball.
"From the way we started, to be sitting here coming in second place in the OVC Championship, that's big progress for my program. The best thing about it is we have a bright future coming up."