No. 13 Cats Have Short Window to Improve Before Facing Tennessee
When the Kentucky women’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker to Louisville in December, the Cats had almost a week to regroup and fix what ailed them. Matthew Mitchell’s team was able to do just that, bouncing back with a win at California exactly six days later.
After suffering their second loss of the season, a 99-72 defeat at South Carolina on Thursday, Mitchell’s Cats have a much shorter window with which to work this time. Kentucky gets back to action on Sunday, hosting No. 22 Tennessee at Memorial Coliseum.
Mitchell hopes his team is able to turn things around quickly.
“Well, we didn’t do very well last night,” Mitchell said of his team’s loss to the Gamecocks. “We have a tough day here (Friday) of trying to get back on track before we can turn our attention to Tennessee, because if we don’t play our guts out every night in this league, we’re going to have a hard time, and you saw that last night. So, we’ve got to get in here after the press conference today and work on playing with greater toughness.”
Historically, Kentucky has not fared well against Tennessee. The Lady Vols own a 55-12 series advantage over the Cats, dating back to 1976. However, the programs have split the last four meetings, each winning twice. That includes Kentucky’s thrilling 73-71 win last season in Knoxville, a game in which Jaida Roper made a huge three-pointer down the stretch to provide the margin of victory.
Mitchell, a former Tennessee assistant under legendary coach Pat Summitt, knows the Lady Vols will be ready, although he’s more focused on his own team at the moment.
“Tennessee is, I’m sure, a real talented team,” Mitchell said. “But we’ve got to get the focus on Kentucky right now.”
Kentucky is in search of some offensive help for Rhyne Howard. The sophomore is averaging 21.5 points per contest, more than 10 points per game more than any other Cat other than transfer Chasity Patterson, who has played in just two games. Mitchell hopes that the addition of Patterson, who is averaging 12 points per contest, can help Howard on the offensive end.
“She is a talented scorer, and you have to have a good balance of pushing in areas where she has to come along, and patience also, knowing it was just her second game of the season, and that’s a difficult spot to be in,” Mitchell said. “So, definitely showing the ability to score, she has done that since she got on campus. But, we’ve got to get her going defensively because she is capable of doing it. Just have to crank up the entire team in that areas.”
Mitchell wanted his Cats to use the tape of Thursday’s game as a learning tool.
“You definitely have to show what is going on there. I think it is very important to see it, rather say you’re just not going to do that anymore,” Mitchell said. “I think everybody learns a little differently, and we definitely want them to have that idea, and use it as a way of showing them what they’re not doing, and showing them how to correct it and what to do. So, we need to own this one. We need to do better.”
If the Cats are to bounce back on Sunday against another Top 25 opponent, they must quickly learn from the mistakes made in Thursday’s game. And Patterson, along with others, will be counted on to help Howard carry the scoring load.
