Matthew Mitchell was spoiled a bit last year.
With the way Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year A’dia Mathies performed down the stretch and the valuable minutes Brittany Henderson provided in the post, it was only human nature for Mitchell to raise his bar of expectations for this year’s freshman class.
Although several of the freshmen have made valuable contributions in a 7-1 start, most notably Maegan Conwright, Kastine Evans and Samantha Drake, Mitchell wants his first-year players to get stronger mentally.
“I think that the sheer numbers this year makes it more difficult (than last year),” said Mitchell, whose team hosts Alabama A&M on Saturday at 2 p.m. “They’ve been playing basketball a long time and some things that they aren’t doing I refuse to say are because they’re freshmen. If you see someone wide open in the post and don’t pass it to them, is that a freshman (mistake) or is that somebody that’s not focused on what they need to be doing?”
Mitchell said he wouldn’t recommend coaching six freshmen to anyone, but whether he likes it or not, nearly every part of this year’s freshman class is going to be counted on as the season progresses, especially if point guard Amber Smith doesn’t return.
The preseason pick to temporarily replace Smith, Jennifer O’Neill, has struggled the most of the freshmen. A high school All-American, O’Neill came to UK as the prized recruit of the 2010 class.
O’Neill was expected to play right away, regardless of Smith’s availability, and that’s why it’s come as a surprise to everyone that she’s having a hard time just finding the court.
“I’m surprised that she’s having as difficult a time as she’s having,” Mitchell said. “She still has the same talent as she had when we recruited her. It’s my job to figure out why the commitment on the defensive end is lacking, and that is holding her back. I think that affects her offensively when her spirits get down. Jennifer just really needs to get stronger mentally and become a tougher player because it’s not physical. She can shoot the ball, she can handle the ball and she can do everything we need her to do. She can defend. For whatever reason, it’s not clicking with her.”
A coach that’s always rewarded players for their effort in practice, Mitchell awarded O’Neill her first real opportunities of the season the past two games. O’Neill played a career-high 13minutes against Tennessee Tech and another nine minutes versus Chattanooga. “That was a direct result of her practice,” Mitchell said.
But it appears O’Neill is still adjusting to the importance of practice on the collegiate level as she struggled to build on her momentum this week. Mitchell said this week’s lull for O’Neill could be attributed to finals week, so he “won’t jump the gun” on her future playing time.
The biggest hurdle in mentally strengthening the freshmen is getting them to deal with adversity.
“The one thing that some of the freshmen aren’t doing is that they don’t handle disappointment well,” Mitchell said. “You’re just not used to having to deal with the consequences with mistakes in high school because you can make up for it with your physical talent.”
Mitchell has always pointed to the holiday break as a time for improvement and a time to kick the season into another gear. With exams over and nothing but basketball for the next few weeks, he’s hoping the freshmen can turn the corner and get ready for the meat of the schedule.
“I think we’ve gotten better in the last two weeks,” Mitchell said. “I think we definitely have a chance to improve. I have a lot of confidence in the talent. We really didn’t come together last year in a way that made you think they had a chance to be successful until around this time last year.”
