UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
MOUNT ST. MARY’S AT KENTUCKY
NOV. 5, 2019
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell – WATCH | DOWNLOAD
Opening statement…
“Proud of the team. Very great victory for us tonight. Mount St. Mary’s was very prepared for the game, and they were tough on us. I thought they had great energy at the start of the game. I thought they were beating us to 50/50, and we really had to get ourselves together there. But, I was very proud that we played some good defense. We’re still a work in progress. There’s plenty of improvement we can make, but I thought we had some great hustle out there on the defensive end. On a night where we can learn from rushing and taking off-balance shots, we’re not going to be that great of a team. If we settle in and take some good shots and really try to be ready to shoot and stay on balance, then we can be a really good offensive team. So tough first half, really did a better job offensively in the second half. For the season opener, so happy to win and so happy for the opportunity to get better from here.”
On Rhyne Howard’s first-half offensive struggles, and how Jaida Roper and Tatyana Wyatt seemed to make up for those struggles…
“I thought they did a really good job. You know, they are two players that we’ll be counting on to be productive this season. I thought Jaida did a great job of giving us a spark off the bench, really helped us get our defense turned up a bit. And Tot’s (Tatyana Wyatt) a talented player, and she had a little bit more.. took a little more time and a little more poise to have an even better night. She didn’t practice all summer and September and is still trying to knock some rust off. So, a real testament to her talent and her intelligence that she can make the impact she’s making with so little practice time, so that’s really good. I thought Jaida was good all night. Mount St. Mary’s came out really aggressive, switching defenses and not making anything easy and I think that’s the thing that Rhyne has to understand. I think she will. She’s got to come out and get low and on balance, early in the game be on the attack and read what’s going on because teams are going to really try to take her out of the game. She’s such a good passer. She’ll keep her balance and her vision to set some other people up. And I think she’s short a few assists tonight because she made some great passes early on and we just couldn’t knock the shot down. Also, you’re just going to have some nights where the shot doesn’t go in. I thought she had some really good shots that didn’t fall. I’m just so happy our defense was able to come through and make some progress tonight from our exhibition game. I think there’s a lot to improve on, but we sure got after it enough to get this victory.”
On defense being ahead of your offense…
“Well, it was good to see some improvement on the defense. I thought the defense was lagging a little bit, but I thought we had a good productive week since the exhibition game. Our players really tried to get better defensively, and it showed up in some areas tonight. Still letting the ball get to the middle of the floor too easily tonight, gave up too many 3-pointers and that was because our on-ball defense was breaking down. We weren’t rotating correctly, but a lot of those things are early in the season that you just have to keep working, getting the repetition and players start making plays, a lot more positive than negative tonight, real pleased with the steps tonight.”
On KeKe McKinney’s and Sabrina Haines’ energy…
“Absolutely, KeKe was terrific, she is really embracing her role, she is an emotional leader for us and we appreciate that, and Sabrina Haines has really improved over the last month. Her defense has improved, and she is really getting after it. That is just what we need to do is seek and improve, constant improvement, so many things that we can get better doing, but you can see it out there, all of our hardworking and talented players, I thought in some long stretches tonight we really played together well defensively and made some plays, proud of those two and our team.”
On what Rhyne Howard did well…
“Well, she is a real even-keeled player, I think she has to understand that she is well known and somewhat of a marked player. She just can’t let anything bother her that’s external, she just needs to keep her head level and I think she did a good job at that. For so much of the night, you can see, we’ve been seeing it since the preseason about practice and how she can impact the game in every area. She had a big night on the board, big night with assists and steals, incredibly productive night. Again I said this earlier, we’re trying to get Rhyne to be her best, we aren’t measuring her against anyone else, we are trying to make sure she understands that you need to hold yourself to… if you just look at her stats, she had an incredible night statistically, so productive and we need all of that. But the goal is to see if we can get their very best from you and if you can give your best effort. Really happy with her production tonight, but excited we can learn from this game as well.”
On Rhyne Howard’s offensive struggles and sitting her in the third quarter…
“That was a positive development for us and I think Jaida Roper was really big during that time, and I thought we started to hit the offensive glass some. To finally get on the attack and get our feet in the paint, first half we had too much east to west perimeter. Answering The Mount’s toughness, we were kind of looking for a call and we needed to get tougher during that stretch. We got our feet and ball in the paint, to our chin, and we got tougher with the basketball, and I thought that was the key to that stretch.”
UK STUDENT-ATHLETES
#10, Rhyne Howard, G, So.
On what Mount. St. Mary’s did defensively to try stop her on offense …
“They were just trying to apply pressure, and they tried to get me out of my game but it wasn’t really working.”
#14, Tatyana Wyatt, F, Jr.
On her offensive help in the first and second quarter…
“With the help of my teammates, they feed me the ball, so I try my best to finish around the rim and do what I can to help us out and get us going.”
On how she is feeling physically…
“I feel good actually, I feel like during the time that I was off, I was preparing well with our strength and conditioning coach and our trainer, trying to get me to full health, so I think the preparation really helped.”
On the slow-scoring start to the season…
“In the beginning, we were taking a couple of quick shots and we noticed that, so we decided we needed to get paint touches and when the ball touches the paint, we tend to shoot better, so I think if we start doing that better than we start hitting outside shots more.”
#32, Jaida Roper, G, Sr.
On the defense comparisons from preseason to opening night…
“I really thought at first we were kind of slacked a little bit, but when we stepped up the intensity, stepped up the pressure, we started playing our game, and you guys saw a little glimpse of what we can do.”
On bringing the energy when Rhyne Howard was in foul trouble…
“I just saw our energy was a little low, and that’s not like us. We’re a real high energy team. When we have high energy, we tend to thrive, so I just saw we were lacking energy so I stepped up.”
On attacking the rim in the fourth quarter…
“In the huddle, we all said our shots weren’t falling like we wished, so just shoot more high-percentage shots and get to the free throw line. Those are a couple things that I know could happen, so I just try to make an emphasis on when we attack they can’t guard us one-on-one, so when I attacked, or when we attacked, they either sent a second person and somebody was open, or they fouled. So, when we picked up on that I feel like we were successful.”
