The UK women’s basketball team has had very few disappointments this season. A 20-3 record tells the story of that.
But if there was one game Matthew Mitchell and his squad want back, it’s likely a trip to Athens Ga a month ago.
During that trip, the Cats had a top-10 Georgia team on the ropes. UK led nearly the entire overtime, but a 3-pointer in the final minute derailed Kentucky’s upset bid. Since that game, Kentucky has blazed through the SEC, sitting in sole possession of second place with less than half the conference season to go.
Mitchell’s Cats remain a game behind first-place Tennessee at 8-2 in the league, but he emphasized Wednesday that UK must continue to focus on its play, not the standings, to keep pace in the league.
“The thing that we have done well all year is that we have not paid a lot of attention about where we are relative to other teams,” Mitchell said. “I think that it would be a big mistake to do that now. We are one bad week or two bad weeks away from not being very good at all. We desperately need to win this one on Thursday and desperately need to win one on Sunday. That is just how it is right now.
“As far as the conference race goes, it is getting down to the wire. There are three weeks left in the regular season and six games left and a lot can happen certainly. I know that I certainly feel like everything is a must win at this point in time from here on out.”
Despite the ramifications of Thursday’s game — the seeminly wanted payback against Georgia and the pressure to keep pace with Tennessee — Mitchell doesn’t look at Thursday’s game as a revenge game.
“Maybe it would be for some teams or some games,” Mitchell said. “Every game in the league is so important, it’s so hard to have a real hated rival. We are as invested in this game as we were in the Arkansas game. For this team, we don’t really have time to focus on anything but what we need to do to beat Georgia.”
The Cats tip off against the Bulldogs in Memorial Coliseum on Thursday at 7 p.m. in arguably the biggest game of the season. Sensing the importance of the game, Mitchell encouraged fans to pack the Coliseum on Thursday.
“We will look for an edge anywhere we can get it and being back home definitely helps,” Mitchell said. “The fans can help that even more if we can get a really big turnout. We have had great, great attendance this year and they always give us energy, but we would love to have a few more in there tomorrow night and really pack Memorial. That would be huge for us.”
