Matthew Mitchell looks at the bracket and understands what all the buzz is about.He sees a potential Sweet 16 rivalry matchup with Louisville. He couldn’t miss a possible Elite Eight showdown with Connecticut.”As the storylines go, and just in the interest of that, there’s some very intriguing matchups in the regional,” Mitchell said.The thing is, it doesn’t mean much of anything right now.”From a very important, practical matter, you just cannot, from a basketball team’s perspective, concern yourself with that,” Mitchell said.UK (23-9) was tabbed the No. 2 seed in the Albany Regional with the Huskies and Cardinals as the No. 1 and 3 seeds, respectively. As tantalizing as the games may be, there are far more immediate tasks at hand as the Cats make their school-record sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.Namely a matchup with Tennessee State (18-12) at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.It will be a rematch of a Dec. 28 game, which the Wildcats won by a margin of 87-75. The game took place in Memorial Coliseum, the same venue that will host Friday’s first-round game. “This is a really tough match because Tennessee State was in the game with us, there is no question about it,” Mitchell said. “But we’re excited to tip off 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.”For the second year in a row, UK will open the tournament at home. Last year, the Cats won the right to host as a result of a bid process. This time, it was based solely on their regular-season merits.”This year, you had to earn it,” Mitchell said. “To me, that’s the thing that I’m most proud of, is that the players, through all of the early mornings and hard runs and weight-lifting sessions and tough practices and day after day after day, to be standing here at this point is something that I’m proud of them for.”2014-15 has been a year of adversity for the Cats, but ultimately achievement. UK had an impressive nonconference run, scoring wins over the likes of Louisville and Baylor, but injuries to Bria Goss and Janee Thompson helped precipitate a lull in Southeastern Conference play.Less than a month ago, the Cats had lost three games in a row after a disheartening performance at Ole Miss on Feb. 23. But a few weeks and one meeting at Mitchell’s house called by UK’s seniors later, the Cats have won four of five, including an upset of NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed South Carolina on Senior Day.”That Monday night when we got on that bus to drive to Memphis to fly home – one of the worst bus rides of my life – do you think anybody on paper thought that next Sunday you had a chance against South Carolina?” Mitchell said. “My point is that you’re in control of how you play the game and they change their mindset in a very short period of time and beat a tough team at Arkansas, beat a really, really talented South Carolina team and then played three really tough games against tough competition (at the SEC Tournament).”The ups and downs have made reaching this point even sweeter.”Seeing our name up there as a No. 2 seed, you think about all the adversity we’ve been through and it was almost like a sigh of relief,” Bria Goss said. “We’re so excited to be in the position that we’re in and we’re going to take every opportunity to get better from here on out and not take any days off.”UK’s final days off came in the week the Cats had to rest following an SEC Tournament semifinal loss to Tennessee on March 7. The time – for a team nursing bumps and bruises, most notably to sophomore point guard Makayla Epps – was well used.”I think for us it was great mentally, emotionally and physically,” Mitchell said. “The time off was good, and then the ability to really get back to focusing on what we do well. Our style of play needs some energy and being able to give them a little bit of time off and then come back energetic and really focusing on our transition game both offensively and defensively, focusing on our press – all of those hustle aspects.”If it sounds like the Cats are going back to their roots, that’s no accident.”We’re just getting back to being an up-tempo, high-energy-type of team that we are,” Bria Goss said. “It’s been great practices. He’s done a great job creating the practice plan. He and the assistant coaches and we’ve really been executing. Just getting back to a high tempo. We’re going to carry it out for the tournament.”