UK Hoops is off to a quick start to the 2014-15 season, but rarely has that been the case in any single game.The Wildcats have been consistently sluggish out of the gate, even in their best wins of the season, which Matthew Mitchell knew was unsustainable if they wanted to reach their goals.On a bitterly cold Thursday night, UK reversed the trend.”I thought we got off to a very good start,” Mitchell said. “I will tell you the kids worked really hard this week on their games and on their minds. We tried to improve, so hopefully all of the hard work paid off with a good start.”Hosting Auburn, the Cats grabbed leads of 9-4 and eventually 21-10. The Tigers would battle back, but UK’s lead never dipped below seven points en route to a 78-57 win in Memorial Coliseum to move to 14-2 (3-0 Southeastern Conference). “I think we did a good job of starting off strong this game,” said Jennifer O’Neill, who scored 17 points due in large part to her five made 3s. “Usually we start out real flat or real slow, but we started off faster than we normally do, which got us off to a good pace.”UK’s focus after a Sunday win over Ole Miss on improvement wasn’t limited to getting off to a quick start. In that victory over the Rebels, Mitchell was forced to rely on O’Neill, Janee Thompson, Makayla Epps and Linnae Harper to play a combined 140 minutes due to unpredictable post play. All week and against Auburn, Kentucky’s young bigs took steps forward.”I thought we played a little bit better tonight at times,” Mitchell said. “They worked real hard. They’ve worked really, really hard since our game Sunday. They put a lot of time into it. We still have a lot of improvement that we need to make, but we’re working like crazy to try to get up to speed.”Included in that group is Azia Bishop, the veteran of the group. The senior, now trying to step into a leadership role, says she’s never worked harder.”(Assistant) Coach (Adeniyi) Amadou pushes us really, really hard,” said Bishop, who had eight points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and four steals. “We get in before practice, after practice, before games and he believes us a lot and he motivates us really well. So I think that this is the toughest year for me, but I think it’s helping me and it’s going to help me in the long run.”Though UK is more consistent in the backcourt, the guards haven’t been excused from the hard work, most notably in taking care of the basketball. Through the first 10 games of the season, the Cats committed 20 or more turnovers six times. In the last six, they haven’t done it once, including three straight in SEC play with 15 or fewer.Considering Auburn was forcing 21.6 miscues per game with its full-court press and UK turned it over just 12 times against the Tigers, it’s clear the Cats are on the right track.”I’m just happy that we have been able to show some maturity in that area,” Mitchell said. “I’ve really faulted the team throughout the year about our lack of maturity. It shows that they have taken it seriously.”With a trip to face an unbeaten, top-ranked and overwhelmingly big South Carolina team on Sunday looming, the next order of business is to address rebounding. UK was bested on the boards by a count of 45-35 against Auburn, but with the way the Cats dedicated themselves earlier this week, there’s no reason to think they can’t progress in that area against the Gamecocks.  “I can’t tell you how hard the players and the coaches have worked this week and we’re just fighting every day to try to get better and see if we can become a good team,” Mitchell said.