UK Seeks to Continue Improvement against Georgia
Matthew Mitchell isn’t accustomed to losing, so the last month has been somewhat jarring for him.
What he continues to remind himself is the foundation that has led to years of success remains in place.
“We have won a lot of games around here so it is difficult when you don’t get the results that you want,” Mitchell said. “It tests everybody in the organization, including myself, to stick to what we believe in and we know we have solid principles and things that will help us be successful.”
Honesty, hard work and discipline have been the core values that have turned Mitchell’s Kentucky program into a fixture in women’s college basketball. As the Wildcats (8-8, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) cope with a seven-game losing streak, those same things will be what puts them back on the right track.
The second of those three winning tools – hard work – has been of particular importance.
“I think we just had to just understand that improvement was going to take much more intensity and much more hard work,” Mitchell said. “I have tried to improve and the players are working hard to improve. They had a good week of practice and worked hard at it.”
That hard work yielded one of UK’s best recent performances on Thursday night, as the Cats took No. 19/19 Texas A&M down to the wire on the road. They ended up falling short in a 74-70 defeat, but there were positives nonetheless.
“I think this week we got closer to playing how we are going to play and how we need to play to be successful,” Mitchell said. “It is challenging, but what a great opportunity for these young folks and for me to show up every day with a great attitude. I will tell you, the work ethic was really tremendous this week. I thought they showed some fight last night.”
That fight gave Kentucky the lead late in the third quarter and had the Cats within one possession of the home-standing Aggies for much of the game’s final five minutes.
“Our team worked hard this past week and I think we showed improvement from the Tennessee game to the Texas A&M game,” Mitchell said. “So we have two more days here Friday and Saturday and a shootaround practice on Sunday to try to continue to improve and see if we can play some winning basketball on Sunday.”
UK will get that chance against Georgia at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The Lady Bulldogs are off to a solid start in Joni Taylor’s first season as head coach, putting a 13-2 (1-1 SEC) record on the line in Memorial Coliseum. They are a mere three victories shy of matching their 16-win total from a season ago.
“Tough game ahead with Georgia,” Mitchell said. “They are a really tough team and are off to a great start this season. They are explosive in transition offense. They are very athletic, very aggressive. They are really tough on the glass, they had 15 offensive boards in each of their first two conference games and that has been a real challenge for us.”
UK has been outrebounded in five of its last six games, making facing Georgia a particular challenge. UK will need to get better to take down the Lady Bulldogs, but Mitchell can’t imagine pursuing that improvement with any other group than his own.
“We have had some good rebounding teams here,” Mitchell said. “We are working hard at it. I just want everybody to know that these kids have given a lot of effort. I just don’t think I have put them in the right spot. They are a great group of kids. You wouldn’t want to be around 14 other young women in the country. They are fantastic people and I just have to do a better job coaching.”
