Numbers will never be able to do justice the importance Victoria Dunlap has made on the Kentucky women’s basketball program.Her 1,721 career points, 1,042 career rebounds, 291 career steals and 170 career blocks, all which rank third on the all-time list at UK, are impressive, as are her 81 career wins, her Southeastern Conference Player of the Year honor in 2010 and her soon-to-be two NCAA Tournament berths.But how does one measure a program changer, a difference maker and a hard worker maybe unlike anything the program has ever experienced?Mitchell tried his best to put Dunlap’s impact into words before Thursday’s 6 p.m. Arkansas matchup, the final home game of the season and Senior Day for Dunlap and Carly Morrow.”When we go out now and talk about the Kentucky program, I think that a lot of people think of Victoria Dunlap and what she has been able to do and how dynamic she is,” Mitchell said. “She sort of gave us a face of the program that people identify with.”Dunlap, alongside Morrow, Mitchell and senior Amber Smith, who did not play this season and will return next year because of a knee injury, were the face of change.Shortly after Mickie DeMoss abruptly resigned following the 2007 season, the UK administration tabbed Matthew Mitchell, an up-and-coming coach at Morehead State and a former assistant at Kentucky, to take over the reins.Dunlap, Morrow and Smith had all signed on to play for DeMoss. Nobody would have thought twice if any one of them decided to go elsewhere.”I think I talked about it with my parents,” Dunlap said of possibly transferring. “It just depended on who the coach was going to be.”One can only imagine what the program would have looked like without Dunlap.While not as high scoring or as physically dominant as Valerie Still (the three-time consensus All-American scored 2,763 career points at UK, more than any other men’s or women’s player in school history), Dunlap’s impact has been nearly as far reaching.”It’s an honor,” Dunlap said to be mentioned in the same breath as the program’s individual standard. “I never thought I’d ever be anywhere close to being something like that.”During Dunlap’s first two years, the program mirrored her game. Both contained talent and potential, but both were raw and untapped. As Dunlap developed into a polished scorer, rebounder and defender, UK started to take off last year. At first, when Kentucky started to knock off ranked opponents and threatened Tennessee for the league title, it seemed like a surprise. But by the time Dunlap was named the program’s first SEC Player of the Year and UK had knocked off No. 1 seed Nebraska to advance to the Elite Eight, the evolution of the program was no surprise – it was a steadfast growth, development and change.”The biggest thing is just her development over the four years, being a kid that came in here that was extremely gifted and talented but didn’t have a polished game and could have just shown up every day and got better incrementally by just showing up,” Mitchell said. “Instead, she embraced everything that we asked her to do. She embraced individual workouts, she embraced getting better as a free-throw shooter and all these different things that we threw her way. She worked herself into being an All-American, which is really remarkable.”Called the nation’s most versatile player by ESPN analyst Abby Waner, Dunlap’s proudest accomplishment is to leave the program better than what it was before she arrived. Before Dunlap, Morrow and Smith arrived in Lexington, UK had been to just one NCAA Tournament in the previous eight seasons.UK is expected to make its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance this year and will be a favorite to return next season with Smith returning from a season-ending knee injury and 2010 SEC Freshman of the Year A’dia Mathies back.Of course, Dunlap didn’t single handily pick up the program and carry it herself. She had help from senior teammates Morrow and Smith.Morrow started in 59 of 111 career games and ranks seventh in career 3-pointers made with 180. Although her minutes have gone down this season, Mitchell said her importance cannot be overstated.As Mitchell tried to establish a program that stressed development and responsibility outside of games, Morrow, a proclaimed “gym rat,” was the first player to embrace the work ethic it took to play the type of style that has made Kentucky so successful over the last two years.
“So many times when I would be in my office and you would hear the ball bouncing, it would be Carly Morrow in the gym, working hard to try to improve as an individual player which would make our team better,” Mitchell said.The transition to Kentucky’s full-court, in-your-face defensive style probably wouldn’t have been as successful without Dunlap, Morrow and Smith. Their personalities, in a way, have been the pillars for the success of the system.”We have always said that we went to that last year out of desperation because we didn’t have any tall players, but if you had short players that didn’t work hard you wouldn’t have had a chance to turn it into what it has become,” Mitchell said. “Those three kids are really hard-nosed and competitors on the court. They are hard workers in practice.”Dunlap, Morrow and Smith have all lived together and have been pretty inseparable over the last four seasons. Although Dunlap and Morrow came to UK as Tennessee rivals, they’ve leaned on each other in good times and bad.”Vic and Amber have been an incredible source of strength,” Morrow said.Dunlap said it won’t “feel right” walking through Senior Day festivities without Smith, but both are hoping her return next year will ensure their hard work will pay off long after they’re gone.”We didn’t want to see all the hard work go down the tubes after one year,” Morrow said.”That’s actually one of the bright spots of Amber coming back next year. She knows what’s to be expected. That gives me hope for the young kids next year.”Both players said they didn’t know or understand what the potential of their careers or this team was when they arrived four years ago. “I know that I will be forever changed by this program and this university,” Morrow said.The program is forever changed by them.