Matthew Mitchell had but one bit of advice for fans and reporters in his season-opening news conference on Thursday.”Set your alarm clocks,” Mitchell said.Why, you ask? Well, the UK women’s basketball team will be kicking off its season with an “early” morning affair Friday in Memorial Coliseum vs. Boston. “We will be serving various breakfast meats at the concession stands,” Mitchell joked. “Only scrambled eggs; we’re not going to be able to take orders on frying them or over-easy or over-medium or anything like that. No omelets. I’m very sorry. The breakfast meats will be sizzling here in Memorial.”All joking aside, the contest at 11 a.m. Friday isn’t all that early, but it does possess some potential significant national exposure. The game will mark the very first game in women’s college basketball this year, just beating several games by an hour.”We have a chance that nobody else has in the country,” Mitchell said.The situation wasn’t originally planned, Mitchell said, but it was a unique opportunity that they felt they needed to jump on. When they learned that ESPN wanted to televise John Calipari’s first game at Kentucky on its family of networks, Mitchell thought it would be wise to move away from a conflicting evening start. “Anytime any of our teams can get national exposure like that we need to make certain that can happen,” Mitchell said.They explored the possibility of an afternoon start, but once the 6:30 p.m. start for the men was passed down, they jumped at the special opportunity to open the 2009-10 women’s basketball season.”We just felt like it was better for everybody for us to play in the morning, that way we can get some schools in to take a day off from school and bring some students in,” Mitchell said. “Some businesses are going to take advantage of it, so it just makes sense with the situation we had.”Early starts often times present challenges for teams, but Mitchell doesn’t anticipate much of a problem with the buildup of a season opener.”I think with it being the first game and being our first opportunity to get out there and play, I think we could play at just about any time and they would be excited,” Mitchell said. “We’re not in rhythm of playing at 7 every night or anything like that, but with it being a first game, I don’t think it’s going to be a huge challenge. We will know this time tomorrow, though, if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”The UK Hoops team isn’t accustomed to playing at 11 a.m. The majority of Mitchell’s players have morning classes, so the team hasn’t practiced before noon this season.However, it isn’t as if they’re rolling out of bed at lunchtime either. The players usually lift weights at 8 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.”They’re not lounging in bed very many days a week,” Mitchell said.The Cats will start Friday with a meeting at 7:15 a.m., followed by the usual pregame meal. The 11 a.m. start is early in terms of basketball starts, but Mitchell believes the opportunity to open the sport’s season trumps an extra hour or so of sleep.After all, 11 isn’t that early.”I don’t know about you guys but I’ve usually gotten a lot done by 11 in the morning,” Mitchell said. “It’s not that early.”

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