By Lois Elfman – – used with permission
Much of America has heard about how intense Wildcats fans can be. Kentucky and basketball are words often uttered together. But unlike college hoop aficionados in places like Tennessee or Connecticut, in Lexington most of the affection was for the men. That is, until Mickie DeMoss came to town.
?The people of the state of Kentucky love the game of basketball. That was an instant connection,? says DeMoss, who is entering her third season as the head women?s basketball coach at Kentucky. Prior to that she spent 18 years as an assistant coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols, one of the preeminent programs in the SEC.
?I think this community and this state were ready for a women?s program,? says DeMoss, 49. ?There really is a genuine love for the game of basketball. Secondly, I think our marketing department here at Kentucky did a really good job ? the ad campaigns, the billboards. We had some commercials. Really energizing the marketing and what our vision was here at Kentucky.?
?Our players?once we got out on the court?played extremely hard. Even though we didn?t win as many games as I certainly would have liked, we played the kind of basketball I think our fans enjoyed watching. Then they came back the next year and bought even more season tickets.?
During Demoss? first season, despite a record of 11-17, UK set new attendance records for most fans in a season, 72,533, and leapt from an average of 3,488 attendees per game in 2003=03 to 5,182. In the 2004-05 fans were rewarded with results. The Wildcats rose to 18-16 and qualified for the post-season WNIT tournament, advancing to the semi-finals where they lost in double overtime to West Virginia.
Despite the quantifiable statistics, DeMoss candidly admits it was not an easy transition for her on several levels. One was winning the allegiance of players who were recruited by another coach.
?We talked a lot about trust,? she says. ?I said I knew it wasn?t going to happen overnight. It?s something you have to develop. But there are some things I expect out of the team as players and people. One of the first things is playing hard and playing with passion. I felt like some of the players maybe had lost some of that passion over the course of their careers here. So we really tried to work on getting that love for the game back. I think the majority of the team bought into that.
?We certainly tried to exhibit that as a staff,? she adds. ?We had passion and we had commitment.?
Coming from the University of Tennessee, where winning was expected, DeMoss had to learn how to teach the feeling of winning to the UK players.
?That was tough,? she admits. ?My first year, I got really frustrated at times. I would challenge some of my players?particularly some of my seniors?and they didn?t respond the way I was accustomed to athletes responding over the last 18 years. So I had to change my approach. I had to encourage more than challenge.
?I took a step back early in the first season and realized I could change my approach but still not lower my expectation,? she continues. ?That was a tough balance at times, because I go into every game expecting to win and thinking that we can win?even though we may be the underdogs. We were the underdogs a lot. Trying to change that mentality was probably the toughest think that I had to adjust my first year here.?
Over the course of her life, DeMoss has been a participant in many exciting changes. She grew up in the small town of Delhi, Louisiana. A sports lover, she wound up playing basketball because it was the only sport for girls offered at her junior high school. She felt an immediate connection to the game, competition and especially the idea of playing on a team.
DeMoss followed her dream to go to Louisiana Tech, even though it didn?t have a women?s basketball team. But this was shortly after the enactment of Title IX, and LaTech introduced at team her sophomore year, and by her senior year she was on full scholarship.
She began her coaching career as an assistant at Memphis State. Then spent four years as the first full-time women?s coach at the University of Florida. From there she headed to Auburn. In 1985 she became the top assistant to the legendary Pat Summitt. During her 18 years with the Lady Vols they made 13 Final Four appearances and won six NCAA championship titles. But DeMoss felt the urge to be a head coach, and Kentucky provided the opportunity.
?I?ve had to grown in a lot of areas,? DeMoss says. ?I?ve had to learn to multi-task and wear a lot of different hats. I have to be a recruiter, then I have to be a teacher, then I have to go speak at the Lions? Club, then I have to go play golf on the Big Blue Caravan. As a head coach, you have to learn to play those different roles and represent your program and your school at a high level, with class and integrity.?
She says there are daily rewards in seeing your players grow on the court and as individuals. ?We teach so much more than just basketball,? she notes. ?You talk about teamwork, cooperation, learning to give to other people and to sacrifice your own personal goals for the betterment of the team, what self-discipline is.?
As her players were up and training by 6:30 a.m. four days a week during the summer and DeMoss hit the road for recruiting trips, they all kept their eyes on the unspoken goal of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament next spring. She knows Kentucky?s passionate basketball fans deserve it.
?When I get a little down or I start thinking we?re not moving fast enough, that?s one area that has kept me going?the fans,? she says. ?Even at my lowest moment, I think about those fans who keep coming, cheering us on and believing in us. That?s been a true inspiration to our players and me.
?I recently had coaches (from West Virginia and Mississippi State) say to me it was the toughest environment they played in all last year,? she adds. ?That makes me feel so good to know that our fans and the people in this community care enough to come out and support our team.?
