March 10, 2003
Mitch Barnhart Quotes
On decision process…
“I met with Bernadette yesterday and we visited about where the program was and where we were trying to go, and after that conversation she felt like it would be in her best interest to resign. There were a lot of different factors – how competitive this program has been and where we were. She felt, at that time, it was in her best interest to step aside.”
On the competitiveness of UK women’s basketball…
“I think all our programs can someday compete for national championships. We certainly have some work to do on all fronts to make all our programs competitive. Women’s basketball is the premier program as far as the women’s sports.”
On previous problems…
“We are in such a good league – the best in the country. That can be a plus as well as a challenge. In sports, there is a cycle. A pattern of success, tradition and recruiting. Once you break in, its easier to stay there. If you slip out, its more difficult to get back in. We have to find a way to slip into that cycle. Obviously, we do not have the tradition (of success) in place, so we need to have someone recruit athletes that can help bring us that success. Having said that, this team is not devoid of talent. I think we have the talent in place to be better than we have in the past two or three seasons.”
On the vision for the new coach…
“I was in a place before I came here that had very few resources and not much to offer. But we had coaches that had a vision for what they wanted that program to be. I am looking for a coach here who has a vision and enthusiasm and can put that together. I want someone who understands the need to be in the community. And that’s not to question Bernadette, but in addition to what she did we need someone who can be in the community and build a fan base. They can recruit at all levels in all areas. Someone that understands how to put together a championship-caliber performance. A track record of coaching, or a coaching pedigree, that allows him or her to come in and lead this program back to the NCAA’s, an SEC Championship and national prominence.”
On current coaching prospects…
“It’s wide open. I don’t want to box this search in. Women’s basketball as a whole is growing every day. There are so many quality people in the ranks. I’m looking for someone who is ready to put their mark on the women’s basketball program here. Someone who wants to make this the signature part of their career. Hopefully we’ll find that kind of person.”
On improvements in resources…
“I think they are some places where we need to improve. At some point, your expectation level and your resources have to mirror each other. And I think we need to raise the bar on both fronts. That’s our responsibility to do that. That’s the business we are in. We need to have a competitiveness in our program so that people feel good about it. Sometimes the investment into the program, from the department or from boosters or people buying tickets, comes first. Sometimes success comes first. The circumstance is very difficult to gauge. We have people that we may be interested in investing in a new birth of this program. We hope that that is the case. We have been in a cycle where they were not that many people that wanted to invest in this program.”
On changes from the football job search…
“We learned some things in the football search. There is no time table for this search. A lot of teams are in post-season play right now and I do not want to get into a situation where we are interrupting another team’s run in the post-season. We have to be cognizant of that. We have a firm that we are working with on background checks. We will continue to make sure we are doing all the right things in that area. We signed two players in the fall period. We are not in a huge rush. The spring period is the second week in April, so we have some time. And we have a nice class coming back – six juniors coming back who want to have a great senior year. So we’ll have experience that we might not have had as much recently.”
On the job…
“I think this a great sell. I think it’s a great opportunity for someone to take over a program that is ready for success. Certainly it gives you an opportuinity to come in and grow it your way. It is an opportunity to come in and play against the best conference in the country. If that scares some people, I’m not sure you want them to have the job. This is the opportunity to line up against the best and go get them.”
On the players…
“We visited a bit last night and I told them the door was wide open. They can come visit with me at any point and time with concerns. I told them to take care of their academics. They have spring break coming up and then they’ll have to get into their spring workouts when they return.”
On the gender of the potential candidate…
“The door is wide open. I have had men coaching women’s sports that have been very successful. I do not think that there is any prerequisite for this coaching job.”
On a possible list of candidates…
“I sat down last night with our staff and went through a variety of names. And there are some people that I respect in the industry that I will speak with. You can’t pretend to have all the answers, but you certainly have to know where you can go to get some knowledge.”
On who he may consult about candidates…
“I have known Pat (Summitt) for 25 years. If there is a better ambassador for the game of women’s basketball, or a coach who knows more about it, I don’t know who it is. So I would like to have the chance to speak with her.”
SeSe Helm, Center
On the players’ reaction to Coach Mattox’s resignation…
“There were a lot of mixed emotions. It’s not everyday that you lose your coach. You’re losing people that are like family. It’s hard, but it’s life and you have changes in your life and this is just one more change.”
On who she would like to see be the next coach at Kentucky…
“I trust (Athletics Director Mitch) Barnhart. I know he’s going to bring somebody in who is capable of being successful.”
On if the possibility of losing Coach Mattox was a distraction throughout the season…
“It was always in front of our faces but honestly during the season it was something that we tried not to worry about. We just blanked it out. It was like a wall that we could just climb right over. We had one thing on our mind and that was being successful and winning.”
On if the team has the talent to compete in the Southeastern Conference…
“If we didn’t have the talent we wouldn’t have been recruited to come here. The sky is the limit for this team. We have the talent and we have a wonderful team.”
On the team’s attitude throughout the year…
“Not one time this season did we lose our vision. When the season started everybody was excited and it was fun and not once did we lose that. We always had faith in ourselves even though we were losing.”
