Through eight years as head coach in Lexington, Mathew Mitchell has built an identity for the UK hoops program. The Wildcats under Mitchell are known for their stingy, full-court pressure defense and fast-break offense.The formula has by any measure paid dividends over the better part of the last decade as the Wildcats have advanced to three Elite Eights and four Sweet 16s in the last five years.Not only has the program’s identity resulted in strong results on the court, but the Wildcats are now able to recruit some of the best players in the country because Mitchell’s aggressive style has become attractive to prospects looking to play an exciting brand of basketball.Such was the case with freshman center Alyssa Rice.”A big reason why I decided to come to Kentucky was the style of play,” Rice said. “I came from a high school that was really defense-oriented. I’ve always felt I was a stronger defensive player and it came more natural to me. Kentucky playing the defense they play and being more up-tempo is definitely one of the things that drew me to Kentucky.”The Reynoldsburg, Ohio, native was a McDonald’s All-American as a senior, and rated as the 20th-best high school senior in America in 2014, as evidence of her prowess as a playmaker near the basket.”Alyssa possesses all of the qualities we desire in a post player.” Mitchell said. “Her incredible combination of size and speed make her a perfect fit for Kentucky. She is clearly one of the top post players in the 2014 class. “Her versatility makes her very difficult to defend. Alyssa is a great ball handler, a great shooter and a tough finisher around the basket. Her ability to run the floor will be very valuable to our program. Alyssa has a tremendous work ethic and I am confident that her Kentucky career will be filled with success.”And all the qualities Mitchell outlined about Rice were what she herself said were her strong suits.”I would describe myself as hard-working, fast-paced, defense-oriented and a versatile player,” Rice said. “Rather than playing just with my back to the basket all the time — like a lot of post players do — I like to be able to take it off the dribble as well and I’m trying to expand my outside range just so I can score in a variety of ways.”Rice might be expected to contribute right away as UK will be looking to replace the production of two front-line starters from a year ago: DeNesha Stallworth and Samarie Walker.The makeup of UK’s roster down low gives Rice an opportunity to contribute right away. She might be buoyed by the fact that current teammates the likes of Linnae Harper and Bria Goss saw plenty of time in their debut campaigns.”Especially since we lost a lot of seniors last year and definitely at the post position there is a wide open gap in the post,” Rice said. “I’m just trying to work hard and there’s going to be a definite need for post presences. All of the posts have just been working hard to try and do our best because many people look at the post right now as a weakness for our team this year so we’ve just been doing our part for the team.”