LOUISVILLE — A’dia Mathies doesn’t say much, but she didn’t need to in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Her play told all one needed to know about how much Saturday’s homecoming meant to her. Playing in front of a hometown crowd in Freedom Hall for the first time as a collegian – in UK’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in four years of all places – Mathies took over the Liberty game and led UK to an 83-77 win.
Mathies was nothing short of dominant, scoring a career-high 32 points to go along with four rebounds, four assists and four steals.
“She wasn’t going to let anybody stop her,” junior forward Victoria Dunlap said.
Now all that stands in the way of Mathies, Kentucky and the program’s first visit to the regional semifinals 1982 is 6-foot-9 Allyssa DeHaan and Michigan State (Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 in Freedom Hall in Louisville). The Spartans will have a decisive height advantage as nine players stand 6-1 or taller. UK, plagued with injuries, will be fortunate if nine players even take the floor.
“The good thing for us is that we’ve been undersized all year, so it’s a place we’ve been before,” UK Hoops head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “There is a comfort level there. It doesn’t make it any easier because Michigan State is an extremely impressive team to watch on film. I have a lot of respect for their players and what they are doing out there on the court. It is going to be tough.”
Kentucky has countered with an in-your-face defense and up-tempo offense to offset its size this season. The Cats are 14th in the nation in steals per game and fourth in turnover margin.
Mitchell said defense will once again be the key if the Cats want to end their eight-game losing streak to Big Ten teams, as it’s been all season for UK.
“The goal is 25 turnovers each game,” Mitchell said. “That is a lofty goal. When I talked to some people about developing some ideas for the defense, a person that I have a lot of respect for said that 25 is the mentality that you need to have.”
Against DeHaan and the much taller Michigan State, Kentucky will try to speed the game up and take height out of the equation.
“What you have to do, is if they want to catch it 20 feet from the goal, we’re trying to get them to catch it 25 feet from the goal,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to try to just take them out of their comfort level and rhythm. It is a simple theory, but it’s hard to actually make happen.
“For instance, with DeHaan, if the guard can’t see her, they can’t get it in there to her because DeHaan is always going to have the height advantage. Ball pressure is where it all starts. We talk a lot about playing post defense 35 feet from the basket. We pick the ball up early and try to make it tough for them to get into what they’re trying to do.”
DeHaan, the tallest player in Michigan State history, is averaging 10.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. But where her height really makes a difference is on the defensive end, where she’s averaging 3.2 blocks per game.
Overall, Michigan State has blocked 117 more shots than its opponents and is outrebounding teams by a 4.9 clip.
That could be troubling news for a Kentucky team that has struggled against bigger, stronger basketball teams. In two losses to Tennessee and one to Auburn, size was the difference.
Dunlap, UK’s leading scorer and rebounder (17.6 ppg, 8.3 rpg), will have her work cut out for her on the block. The 6-1 forward has never faced a player as tall as DeHaan.
“I think we are going to do a lot of shot fakes and go around her and not really go in and try to score layups,” Dunlap said. “I know me personally, I would try to do that even though I did that in the SEC and did not make a lot of shots and got blocked. We are going to try to focus on going around her and not really going into her and using our other teammates.”
The good news for UK is that even if Dunlap is slowed, it has another bona fide option in Mathies. The Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year is averaging 20.6 points over her last five games.
“It’s all excitement,” Mathies said of her Derby City performance. “Just knowing that my family and my friends can come out and see me makes me even more excited.”
Mitchell predicted before the NCAA Tournament that Mathies would have a breakout performance.
“A lot of times in the power conferences, you see some of these highly touted freshmen really do well against the non-conference opponents and then they struggle to adjust to conference play,” Mitchell said. “A’dia was sort of the opposite. She had some huge games in the SEC and was incredible in the SEC Tournament. When she got a few days off and got to go home, it seemed like she came back really recharged and ready to go. In practice, she looked great and explosive. She looked confident and looked to be in control of her game. That’s what led me to believe that she was poised for something like that.”
Mitchell is hoping she’s poised for one more breakout performance to offset the size of Michigan State.
