Matthew Mitchell hardly had enough players to field a team at the end of last season. Now he could build a team with guards alone.
The UK women’s basketball announced the addition of Bernisha Pinkett, a highly touted 5-foot-7 guard out of Howard D. Woodson High School in Washington D.C., to the 2009-10 roster. Pinkett has enrolled for the spring semester and will be eligible immediately for the remainder of this season, although it’s unclear what her immediate future is with the team.
“There is a chance (she could play this year),” head coach Matthew Mitchell said Wednesday. “I am just being totally honest with you today. I really can’t give you a percentage. I would think it just depends on a lot of different factors, so it is hard for me to say. There is a chance. If she gets out there and she looks like Sheryl Swoopes or something, then there will probably be a great chance for her to play.”
Pinkett’s addition gives Mitchell nine players who are capable of playing the guard position.
Although she is well regarded after averaging a team-high 24.1 points per game in leading her high school team to a 22-6 overall record last year, it remains unclear what her role will be with this year’s UK team. Pinkett joins a 13-2 team in the middle of the season when team chemistry has already been developed.
There is the possibility the first-year guard could redshirt.
“She has a bright future, but she just got here Sunday, so I don’t really have a real good handle on what her immediate future looks like,” Mitchell said. “We are just trying to help her get acclimated to the campus and all those things. It is a tough situation for her to come in at this time of year with a team that is much engrained into the team now. She will have a lot to catch up with. We are trying to make her feel at home and welcome her into our family and not put a lot of pressure on her as far as playing. I’m sure that is what everyone has on their mind. I just don’t know what her immediate future holds for her. But I do like her long-term future.”
Pinkett scored more than 1,600 points during her prep career and netted a career-high 45 and 42 points in games last season. She was also named Most Valuable Player of the D.C. Interscholastic Athletics Association and was a first-team All-Beltway selection in 2009.
“She is a talented young woman and talented basketball player – very talented offensive player,” Mitchell said. “She can shoot the basketball, can handle the basketball and has good athleticism. I think she can develop into a defensive player that can develop into our style that we are playing right now.”
Mitchell said she is so athletic, versatile and strong that she can play both guard positions, although she would probably only play the point in “emergency situations.”
