On Wednesday, Matthew Mitchell joined the Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Teleconference. With his Wildcats in the midst of a one-week layoff between games, Mitchell talked about the strength of the SEC, leadership and his work in mentally preparing his team. Here’s a transcript.Opening statement“Well, we came off an important win on Sunday against a really good Missouri team and we’re happy to get that victory. We’re just going to try to take advantage of our open date on Thursday, try to help us get better as a team and try to get prepared for what we know will be a tough game on the road at Auburn. Always a tough place to play. We’re just trying to focus on practice every day and see what kind of team we can become.”On parity in the SEC …“I just think it’s very early, too early to tell what will happen. Most teams four games into it, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. So a lot of big games ahead, but I thought going into the year the league was a very, very high-quality league. It always is and it’s no different this year. So think we’ll have some really tough, tested teams because of league play will advance to the NCAA Tournament and I think the SEC will really be a conference to be reckoned with in the NCAA Tournament.”On whether any players who have exceeded expectations this season …“Well, we have gotten off to a really good start if you look at it over 17 games and we’ve won some big games. I think, for us, what’s always important is to have some balance and I’ve been so pleased with the team’s performance. We’ve had a really, really good balance of people contributing on the team to victory and you never know from one night to the next exactly who’s going to be the top scorer. We really try to focus more on our defense and our team play maybe more than we do someone’s scoring. I don’t know if there’s any real surprises. I was very optimistic about our team going into the season and they’ve performed well so I couldn’t really single out just one person.”On who has done a good job from a leadership standpoint …“Well, I think that Kastine Evans and Bria Goss have both really worked hard, are excited to lead, have the courage to do that, really work on it and think about it. I think our seniors–always people look toward your senior class and I think that they have done a really good job working hard and setting good examples for the player. And then, you know, we’ve really tried to get the players that have been playing the point-guard position – Janee Thompson and Jennifer O’Neill – to improve in that area. Just yesterday, I thought that Janee Thompson was really, really trying to focus in on being a good leader. So we believe in leadership development. We believe that you can develop those qualities and I think our team’s worked really hard in that area.”On whether it has gotten easier to mentally prepare his team …“You know, that is such an interesting part of being a teacher and a coach. And it’s such a journey to try to figure out each and every year what works for a team and what works for players and players change from year to year. And so what I’ve found is if you ever start making assumptions and think that you’ve got it figured it out, that’s where I’ve always gotten in trouble with that. I think it’s so interesting from year to year how different that process is and trying to make sure players stay focused on what they need to do and you make look great on a Thursday and then you come back on a Sunday and you don’t look that great and you just try to figure that out as a coach, how to get that consistency. And so I really admire the coaches who, over the years, are able to get consistent performances from their team year in and year out. For us, it just always goes back to the core tenets of our program. We’re just always trying to develop our kids’ character. We want kids of really high character. We want players that’ll sacrifice for each other and we want players that’ll work really hard to prepare and then players that are interested in our core principles: honesty, hard work, discipline. So we’re always trying to mentally get them to a spot where they can embrace those things and I think that’ll not only help our team this year, but it’ll also help our players after they move on from Kentucky. So it is a very interesting part of being a teacher, is trying to keep people focused and on task and not looking too far in the future and maybe not holding on to mistakes made in past games. So it’s a daily process, I think, as a teacher to try to make sure you’re working hard in that are to help your players and students the best you can.”