Moderator:                      We are now ready for the Kentucky portion of the press conference and it will begin with an opening statement from Coach Mitchell.

Coach Mitchell:               Well, we’re excited to advance in the tournament. Very proud of our team for the victory. I’d like to first say really compliment Princeton — what an outstanding team they have, what a great season they have had. They were well-coached and played hard and were as prepared as anyone we’ve seen all season and it was a real, real tough game, which we’re very proud to win against that opponent we have much respect for. I thought our players came out in the third quarter and and really, really did a great job getting control of the game. I thought we had a good halftime session and just so proud of our two seniors stepping up and leading the way and leading us to a great victory in this NCAA tournament.

Moderator:                      All right. Thank you coach. At this time I’ll open it up for questions for the student athletes. Once again, questions for the student athletes.

Question:                         Yesterday, you all talked about not coming out with any rust because it has been two weeks since you played a game. Do you think that played any factor in the game?
Taylor Murray:                Um, no, I didn’t think we had any rust. One thing we talked about was not to be very nervous at all. But we hit some shots, we were able to just pick it up and just do a Kentucky does normally.
Maci Morris:                    What Taylor said. Princeton is a really good team offensively just executing. They’re really smart, they know how to read screens and stuff like that. So we just had to kind of adapt to that and make sure that we were playing our defense and go from there.

Question:                         How did it feel to get on a roll again today for the first time in a few games?
Maci Morris:                    It felt really good. When I see them go in like that, it just just gets me going. So it felt really good since I’ve been struggling a little bit this past few games.

Question:                         What kind of spark did Jaida Roper or give you guys today. It seemed like she really brought in some energy there.
Taylor Murray:                Jaida is like a really good spark person for us. She brings that energy whenever we need hustle plays. We need those hustle plays to really get us a lead-in to the second half. So she brung that energy for us. Um, she made plays for us. Whenever she needed a defensive stop, she was there for us. So she is a tremendous part of our team and when she brings energy we all can feed off her.

Moderator:                      We’ll now go ahead and open it up for questions for Coach Mitchell.

Question:                         What did you tell the team when they went on that run in the third quarter?
Coach Mitchell:               Yeah, I think we were so focused on Bella Alarie which she’s such a great player and she’s the player of the Ivy League two years in row for a reason. She’s outstanding. And I just felt like we were standing and staring at her a little bit too much. We were trying to bring some help and break her rhythm a little bit. But then once she got the ball out, we just, we’re not recovering. So we just tried to settle down. They went zone on us, so we really had to try to settle down offensively as well and move the basketball. Sometimes when we get behind, we start to let a little panic set in and we start quick shooting the ball to try to get back into the lead. And so we just needed to settle down right there. And I thought they really responded well. I think it was like a 13 to to run, um, where we were able to take the lead. I thought that was a big momentum shift for us because you know, when you’re playing and all you have is 40 minutes promised at this point in time we were down to like 32 minutes promised and you just don’t want the team to dig a big hole and you don’t want to panic at that point in time. So I was very grateful for the response to, to they’re getting out to a 9-point lead.

Question:                         Was the plan to double or triple team Bella Alarie throughout the game?
Coach Mitchell:               Well we were trying to double-team or yeah, we’re trying to see if we could limit her ability to, to get into a rhythm. And so we were trying to bring some, an extra player, and so sometimes we would bring three and she’s so smart, such a great passer really made us pay and we just didn’t move the way that we needed to. But I thought that that constant attention and us just trying to harass her rhythm as much as we could. I thought that it paid some dividends and the second half I thought we really had to stay committed to our pressure. Princeton made so many great plays versus us. They’re really a difficult team for us to defend because they’re so skilled and so sharp and so well coached. So I believe this would be a really tough game and it turned out to be that way.

Question:                         Yes, sir. What’s your message to the team doing it?
Coach Mitchell:               Well, today we just are extremely proud of our players and our team for fighting so hard. It’s our you know, first victory in this tournament and now we will just try to get some rest. It was a very tough game, very physical game. Again, Princeton fought so hard and we really had to, um, play with a lot of energy today to get this victory. So we’ll just try to get some rest and, uh, just keep the players full of positivity. That’s what they wanted in this tournament. They wanted to stay positive and know that they could make some noise here in the tournament. So we’ll see who we play Monday night, but today we’ll try to get some rest and you know, as coaches will try to huddle up and figure out who we’re playing and, and come up with a plan. But, uh, the players will get some much deserved rest today.

Question:                         I thought Taynana Wyatt played really good on throughout the whole game. Can you just talk a little bit about her game today?
Coach Mitchell:               Well, she’s really playing a so tough right now and, and has really battled through some nagging injuries all season long. I just have to give the kids so much credit. She’s played a really like a warrior and so proud of her and I thought she really brought it today. I thought she really brought it, she was in some pain today, played through it was tough. Got some big rebounds as you said. And um, got some key baskets when Alarie was in foul trouble. And we tried to go to her and she still played tough defense on top, but she was able to, uh, really get some big baskets for us when it was kind of going back and forth and we needed to stabilize the lead. So, um, you know, I don’t, I don’t think you can say too much about, uh, I don’t think you say enough about top wide and, and then, um, as was mentioned earlier, Jaida Roper was just huge in the game, you know, seven points, five assists, no turnovers, and just hustle, play after hustle, play that really, um, I thought that third quarter us turning them over and getting them disrupted a, and having that big third quarter was huge for our ability to win this game.

Question:                         Yesterday you talked about coming out without any rust. Can you talk about the way you played early?
Coach Mitchell:               No, I thought we were energetic. I thought that we were a step slow a couple times where there was kind of one Princeton player and four Wildcats around the ball and we ended up with a tie ball, a jump ball instead of coming out of there with the ball. I thought Princeton was really motivated and really hustling. I didn’t think we had lacked, I didn’t think we were lacking hustle. Um, you know, totally. We just needed to amp it up and make sure that we did everything we could to exceed Princeton’s effort. And so I thought you throughout the game we got better at that. So I don’t know if that’s rust or not playing. Another thing for us, we are a year removed from the tournament with a lot of players without a lot of NCAA tournament experience. So we talked about trying to get that nervous energy channeled into aggressive, energetic hustle plays. And I think as the game wore on, we were able to make that happen and really, really proud of the team today.