UK men’s soccer has disappointed this year. Is there still a path to the NCAA Tournament?

On Tuesday night — the same day that the Indiana and Kentucky men’s basketball programs announced the long-awaited return of their regular-season series — another Hoosiers versus Wildcats matchup took place.

At the Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington, the IU and UK men’s soccer teams played out an entertaining 1-1 draw that featured two goals and a penalty kick in the first half alone, and a red card issued to the Wildcats in the second half.

But beneath the surface of this regional rivalry was obvious disappointment.

This has not been the 2023 season that either Indiana or Kentucky expected.

Both schools were ranked in the top three in the nation in the United Soccer Coaches’ preseason poll, and with good reason.

Indiana made it to the national championship match last season before losing in a lengthy penalty shootout. Kentucky was the only undefeated team entering the 2022 NCAA Tournament, but lost as the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed at home in the Sweet 16.

Both schools have sputtered following significant struggles in 2023: IU and UK are winless in three conference matches each.

And for Kentucky, in particular, time is running out to qualify for a sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament.

“We feel like we’re trending in the right direction,” UK head coach Johan Cedergren said Tuesday night. “The results haven’t been good the last couple of weeks, but I still think that the performances haven’t been that bad.”

UK, which brought in 14 newcomers this offseason, is now done with its non-conference schedule.

The Wildcats’ overall mark of 3-6-1 certainly isn’t good enough to receive an at-large bid to the 48-team NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky’s chances of reaching the national postseason are even slimmer when you consider the Cats’ 0-3-0 mark in Sun Belt Conference games: After going undefeated in conference play and winning both the Sun Belt regular season and tournament championships in 2022, Kentucky has lost all three of its Sun Belt games in 2023 by 1-0 margins.

Overall, Kentucky hasn’t won a match in a month.

A lack of reliable offensive firepower despite the additions of several big-name transfers has been the main ink stain on UK’s season so far.

The Wildcats have scored just 10 goals, and they’ve been shut out in half of their games (five total).

When Kentucky defender Eoin Martin lashed a right-footed strike into the back of the net in the first half against Indiana, it snapped a 403-minute scoreless drought for the Wildcats.

Forward Aboubacar Camara, a top offseason transfer addition from Louisville, has only two goals and one assist this season. Forward Logan Dorsey, formerly of Gonzaga, leads UK in scoring with three goals.

Freshman forward Isaiah Chisolm — all 6-foot-3, 205 pounds of him — has seen increased time spearheading the UK offense.

It’s a far cry from last year’s dynamic Kentucky attack, which featured the best assist man in all of college soccer in Nick Gutmann.

“I think we have a really deep squad, it’s just that we haven’t been able to maybe get these guys to really perform,” Cedergren said. “... Now it’s just about fine tuning a couple of things that we can do better.”

While the Kentucky defense has become sturdier compared to when it was cut open in an early-season loss at Louisville, matches are won by scoring goals, something that’s been far too infrequent for UK this season.

And even when opportunities have been handed to them, it’s still been a struggle for the Wildcats to take advantage: Kentucky has missed its last three penalty kicks, including one Tuesday night when midfielder Finn Ballard McBride was denied from 12 yards out.

All of this taken together, it’s an uphill battle for Kentucky to reach the postseason.

Only six regular-season matches remain for UK, all against Sun Belt opponents.

This includes consecutive matches at undefeated and No. 1-ranked Marshall on Oct. 22 and at home against also unbeaten and No. 3 West Virginia on Oct. 27.

While it may be too late to salvage UK’s chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, there’s always the opportunity to automatically qualify by winning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

The only problem, as things stand, would be getting into the event.

The top eight teams from the 10-team Sun Belt qualify for the conference tournament. With no wins and no points from three conference matches so far, the Wildcats find themselves dead last in the standings.

“I’m a big probabilities, (Microsoft) Excel, math guy, history, all that kind of stuff. So the good thing is I’ve been here for 12 years and we normally don’t have the records that we have this year,” said Cedergren, who has led the Wildcats to nine NCAA Tournament appearances since becoming UK’s head coach prior to the 2012 season.

“I haven’t changed much that I’m doing this year, compared to the other years, so I do believe the process that we have does work. And it just hasn’t maybe worked quite with this group. So maybe now we have to tweak the message a little bit, but also maybe they need to be a little more coachable with some of the things that really, really matter.”

Next game

Kentucky at Coastal Carolina

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Records: UK 3-6-1 (0-3-0 Sun Belt), Coastal Carolina 3-4-2 (1-1-1)

Series: UK leads 2-1-3

Last meeting: UK and Coastal Carolina drew 0-0 on Oct. 19, 2022, in Lexington