Not too much longer until UK Hoops tries to take the final step toward the program’s first-ever Final Four berth. Kentucky will face off against top-seeded Connecticut in a regional final on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.To kill the time before tipoff, here’s an excerpt from an article on A’dia Mathies written by Graham Hays of ESPN.com:
Kentucky’s leading scorer this season is not the same kind of presence as Moore or Taurasi, or even contemporaries like Nneka Ogwumike. Mathies led or shared the lead in scoring in just 16 of Kentucky’s 34 games leading up to Tuesday. But she was responsible for 10 of the 15 instances in which a Kentucky player scored at least 20 points, including 34 points in a season-defining win against Tennessee. If one player is going to live up to the Auriemma doctrine and lift Kentucky to an upset, the betting starts with the player labeled the “silent assassin” by her current coaches during the recruiting process.Mathies is no stranger to the big stage. In at least one respect, the junior guard might be more familiar with it than just about anyone in the tournament. While this is just her second appearance in a regional final, with a program seeking its first trip to the Final Four, it’s also the 10th consecutive season in which she played at either the college or high school varsity level, a run that began when she made the varsity team at Louisville’s Iroquois High School in sixth grade.By the time she was fully immersed in the college recruiting scene, she was a known commodity, a top-100 recruit who went on to win Kentucky’s Miss Basketball. She was also inscrutable, earning a reputation for shyness and reticence around those outside her inner circle. It’s a label she thinks is inaccurate, even if she doesn’t waste a lot of words explaining why.“Around people I don’t know, I don’t really think there’s much to say,” Mathies explained. “If I get to know you and have something to talk about, I can talk. I don’t think I’m really shy; I’m just more observant and really don’t think there is much to say.”
