The way Matthew Mitchell describes it, A’dia Mathies at 75 percent is better than most players at 100 percent.She’s that good.”A’dia Mathies is out of this world,” Mitchell said at Thursday’s media day. “Yesterday we got in the office after practice and I’m like, ‘Man, did you see A’dia Mathies today?’ It’s just incredible.”For all the deserved praise Victoria Dunlap received last year in taking her game to the next level and winning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year honors, it may have been the addition of superstar freshman Mathies that helped the program take the giant leap from a .500 team to a Final Four contender. Mathies signed with UK as the 2009 Kentucky Miss Basketball out of Iroquois High School in Louisville, Ky. Easily the best high school player in the state and the biggest recruiting coup at UK in recent memory, Mathies was expected to come in and contribute right away.But few people could have anticipated her to step in and average a team-high 32.0 minutes per game, score 13.6 points per game and run away with SEC Freshman of the Year honors.She was good in high school, but she wasn’t that good.How did Mathies make such a seamless transition to the collegiate game?”It’s hard to say exactly what happened,” Mitchell said. “We tried to give her a supportive environment. We tried to make her understand that we believed in her. We tried not to make her totally come out of her comfort zone. She’s sort of a quiet, shy kid. We didn’t just jump down her throat the first day. We tried to bring her along slowly.”If any of those things helped, I don’t know. I just know that probably more than anything she just got onto a college court and she started playing, and our style of play sort of suited what she wanted to do. We sort of gave her the ball and allowed her the freedom to go make some plays.”She made enough to guide UK to the Elite Eight, spending time at shooting guard, small forward and even point guard when backup Crystal Riley went down with an injury. With Mathies’ versatility and year of experience, there isn’t a huge concern as to how UK will replace injured starting point guard Amber Smith or if Kentucky can play four guards at once. Mathies proved in her first year that she’s capable of playing anywhere on the court.”A’dia just knows all the positions on the floor,” Mitchell said. “There’s some power forward matchups in this league, around the country, where the way we play defense, she could guard a power forward. I don’t know how many power forwards could guard her. That’s an interesting thing we’ll have to see.”Mitchell credits Mathies’ basketball IQ as one of the primary reasons for her first-year success.”I have coached three kids now, with A’dia being the third, who I thought were extremely intelligent and who I thought knew where everybody was on the court and needed to be,” Mitchell said this summer. “Those are rare players and A’dia is one of those.”Mitchell even went as far to call Mathies an SEC Player of the Year Candidate and potentially one of the best players in the country.”I’ve been here a year so I know what to expect more than I did last year when I would just go out there really just playing,” Mathies said. “Knowing I had a good year gave me more confidence that maybe I can do even better this year.”But if you believe in trends, fortune and history, chances are you know of the dreaded sophomore slump. With the success that both Mathies and Kentucky experienced last year, Mathies is fully aware the target will be on her back this season.Mitchell said he doesn’t subscribe to luck and superstition. “If I am trying to guard against her going into a sophomore slump then I am almost creating an out for her,” Mitchell said. “I am not going to talk to her about that and I don’t believe in a sophomore slump. Maya Moore didn’t have a sophomore slump and Tamika Catchings didn’t have a sophomore slump and Chamique Holdsclaw didn’t have a sophomore slump. A’dia is that level player in my mind. She is one of the more extremely talented basketball players in this country. If A’dia wants to be and makes the right choices day in and day out, then there will be no sophomore slump.”If Mathies wants to avoid a dip and continue to get better, Mitchell said she will have to push herself to figure out what her limits are.Based on what she’s exhibited in preseason practice thus far, those limits could be endless. “She’s a lot more confident, which I didn’t think she could be because she was pretty confident last year,” Dunlap said. “She has more confidence in her 3-point shot. She doesn’t hesitate anymore. She just has the look in her eye where she is going to score no matter what.”She’s that good.