Mitchell Sees a Simple Path to Success for UK

Matthew Mitchell is a flexible coach, willing to adjust scheme to fit personnel. He’s proven that throughout the course of his 12 seasons at Kentucky.
 
There is one thing on which the winningest coach in program history is unwilling to compromise.
 
“We want to be that team that the opponent knows, listen, this is going to be 40 minutes of all out get after it and they’re going to hustle their way through the 40 minutes,” Mitchell said.
 
With the start of the 2019-20 season just two weeks away, Mitchell believes he has a team capable of exactly that. That’s why he isn’t fussed about settling on the specifics of UK’s offensive and defensive tactics.
 
“If you can get there, the scheme doesn’t matter as much to me,” Mitchell said. “So, whether we are full-court man-to-man, whether we have more of a zone look in our press, those things don’t particularly matter to me as long as everyone’s hustling and on the defensive end, we’re on the attack and we’re disruptive.”
 
In the end, Mitchell imagines he’ll settle on some combination of man and zone that depends on who’s on the floor at any given moment. His group, though without two of the best guards in school history in departed seniors Maci Morris and Taylor Murray, is a versatile one. Mitchell expects that to be UK’s greatest attribute.
 
“If you don’t come out and guard us we’re gonna be able to do some things and I think that this team has a great ability to shoot the basketball and that needs to be something that happens for us offensively because if we can do that, then our athleticism can really shine through,” Mitchell said. “People have to come out and guard you and can’t sit back and just let you shoot or you’re going to make a bunch of shots on them.”
 
No one, in all likelihood, will make more shots than Rhyne Howard. The reigning National Freshman of the Year led UK in scoring a season ago and will now step into an even more prominent role. It’s one she’s more than talented enough to handle.
 
“She just doesn’t have many weaknesses,” Mitchell said. “Great ball handler, big, strong, athletic, so I think if you try to face guard her she’s athletic enough that we can find a way to get her the ball and then, she is just one of the best passers on the team, one of the best shooters on the team and, and then can really make an impact on the boards and defensively.”
 
Plenty of talent surrounds Howard, but the fact remains that no one on UK’s roster averaged more than 6.9 points last season. Complementary scorers will emerge, but the Wildcats’ nonconference opponents will unquestionably be keyed on the 6-foot-2 sophomore. Mitchell doesn’t want her to dwell on that.
 
“I do think that early on maybe there was some pressure on her that she really had to do something kind of otherworldly,” Mitchell said. “I’ve told her, if she’ll come to work every day, just practice really hard, stay in the gym and make sure she sharp and prepared, I think it’s the other teams that have something to worry about because she’s just that versatile and gifted and talented and tremendously competitive, wants to win badly, but we’ll just have to work our way through all those challenges that the opponent sends our way and I think she’ll be equipped to handle them.”
 
In that way, Howard is a lot like her team.
 
“I think this is a team that has tremendous capability to have a special season,” Mitchell said. “We have some versatility, we have some depth, we have some great attitudes working right now.”
 
To realize that potential, there is but one top priority.
 
“I think if we keep that one key of just being the team that hustles more than anybody else,” Mitchell said. “all the other details will reveal themselves to us as we progress in practice.”