Three weeks of games don’t get much more difficult than the one UK Hoops just went through.”All schedules aren’t created equal in the Southeastern Conference,” Matthew Mitchell said, “and we’ve had a real, real rough stretch.”Five of the Wildcats’ last six games have come against ranked opponents, most recently including a stretch of three straight against top-15 teams. No. 11/10 UK (19-7, 8-5 SEC) has survived it with three wins, but lost back-to-back games to close it out, both by double digits.On Thursday, the Cats fell behind by as many as 23 points in an 81-69 defeat at the hands of Texas A&M. In the loss, the Aggies got to the rim at will and didn’t even need to attempt a 3-pointer to top the 80-point mark.”Well, there’s two things and one’s on me,” Mitchell said. “I really need to get our half-court defense shored up. And that’s my responsibility from a schematic standpoint I need to get a couple things taken care of there and then the energy is on them and we had a good discussion about that (Friday).”UK’s first opportunity to address that energy comes on Monday at Ole Miss (15-11, 5-8 SEC). The Cats will have their regular Thursday-Sunday schedule interrupted by the SEC Network’s Monday Night Showcase, but Mitchell doesn’t see that as a bad thing.”(Ole Miss head coach) Matt (Insell) has them playing extremely hard and he’s just done an amazing job with their turnaround,” Mitchell said. “So tough game for us and we’re going to really put a poor performance behind us last night and focus on getting better defensively today. So actually is good we have an extra day to do that.”The game will be a rematch between the Cats and Rebels, with UK winning a tough one on Jan. 4, 64-58. It wasn’t a work of art, but the win does offer a lesson.”So we watched the A&M game, and then we popped the Ole Miss game in and our energy level – we didn’t do everything right that day, and we weren’t just fantastic on offense, but we played much more energetic than we did (Thursday) night,” Mitchell said. “That was good for the players to see. That’s how you need to play.”A two-game losing streak has made the big wins the Cats have notched this season a distant memory, but Mitchell is working to remind them what they’re capable of. “You know, over the course of a 35-game season it’s a long season and I just don’t think you can get too weighed down when you sort of hit a little trough like it seems like we’re in,” Mitchell said. “We’ve always found some way to bounce back from that and we have to stay real positive and real encouraging.”He’s convinced they’ll bounce back again.”I won’t stop believing in this team,” Mitchell said. “What’s great about basketball is that if you can get it right at the end of the year, that’s the best time to get it right. I am very optimistic that we can help our players do a better job defensively and we are going to work at that today.”