UK Athletics Communications and Public Relations
Kentucky Women’s Basketball
Exhibition vs. Southern Indiana
Oct. 30, 2019
Memorial Coliseum – Lexington, Ky.
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening statement …
“Well, it was great to be in Memorial Coliseum tonight. We appreciate a really great crowd showing up and supporting the Cats and we are glad to have the season off and running. Hats off to Southern Indiana. I thought they really confused us on some looks and we weren’t really quite far enough along in attacking some of the stuff they did, so that’s on me as the coach and we’ll correct that. There were some great things in the game for us to learn from and so just what you’d expect this time of the year. Happy for all of the positive things that happened and grateful for all the opportunities to learn and grow. This is the starting point, and we’re excited to get better from this one.”
On what you saw offensively …
“They were really disguising their looks and switching them up a lot, and we have been working really hard on a lot of man offensive looks and haven’t worked against a lot of zone. Also, our rotation’s aren’t set real solid so a lot of people played different spots and she’s playing multiple positions. She (Rhyne Howard) really showed what a threat she is from the 3-point line. If you’re going to try and give us a look and confuse us, it’s a pretty good option. It’s not great offense – give Rhyne the ball and let her shoot – but that’s what it was looking like. She’s just a great shooter from out there. But as the second half progressed, I thought we were finally able to make some adjustments on the court and the players themselves in the timeouts and it was better at the end than it was at the beginning. It was a little rocky, and I’m happy to see her shooting the ball well, but happy to see her doing so well because we’re going to need her.”
On what the newcomers learned from a game like this …
“I just thought getting their feet underneath them and getting out on the court with some fans in the stands and being in a game-like atmosphere. I just thought there were so many positives that you saw that the newcomers are going to bring us. There was a lot of hustle and there are plenty of mistakes, but I thought the newcomers gave us a lift in different areas. The thing about tonight is a lot of good things happened, but there is just so much room for improvement. I’m sure we’ll get better from here.”
On Emma King being able to shoot the 3 …
“That’s what she needs to do. I love seeing it. We were much better from the 3-point stripe as a team when we were able to get the ball into the paint and play inside out. That’s really good for her. That’s a shot she can make without a doubt. It looks really good leaving her hand and she’s spent a lot of time on it. That’s what she needs to do when she gets in the game if they’re going to leave her open like that. I didn’t see a lot of hesitation from her and what I just love about her is her steadiness. She doesn’t carry a mistake to the next play and she’s not afraid to shoot it if she missed the last one. If she gets it and it’s a good shot, she’s going to take it. So, that was great. Glad to see her shoot the ball well. She didn’t shoot the ball that well in our last scrimmage and so happy to see her out in a game-like situation and do that. That’s going to be real important.”
On his team’s point guard play …
“It’s a work in progress. Again, I didn’t do the point guards any favors tonight because we weren’t really totally advanced in our zone offense and they were really showing us some different looks. There were some odd-front zones and we’ve been practicing against our zone defense which is a 2-3. There was a lot of things there. I thought as the game settled on, we started making better plays and Rhyne did a good job. Jaida (Roper) has some really good plays there in the fourth quarter and we kind of got clicking a little bit. A lot of confidence in our point guard position. A lot of players that can take that role. As they were pressing us, the ball might end up in Amanda’s (Paschal) hands or Sabrina’s (Haines) hands, and you saw they were able to initiate the offense, too. So, I thought we did a good job. We definitely need to get better and take good care of the basketball. It was the first time out, situations we hadn’t been in, but I thought everybody played really hard and all of the errors we had were correctable and I think these players will correct them.”
On what the rotation looks like and how he settled on the starting lineup …
“That’s a tough one for us right now because as you can see there’s just a lot of similarity in our roster one through 10 right now. It’s a good thing, but it’s also challenging to try and get some rotation. I wouldn’t say anything is going to be set in stone for quite some time and we just have to keep practicing and try and find out what really looks good together. It’s a combination of things, not just one thing led to what we ended up with tonight. We wanted a little punch coming off of the bench because we feel like we’re going to be a deep team, so the starting lineup probably meant less tonight than any time I’ve been here in 13 years. We knew were going to play all 10 healthy and eligible players tonight, so we tinkered with a lot of different things tonight, had to deal with some foul trouble that we haven’t had to do in practice so all in all it was a great night for us to learn and grow and get better. The five that started this game may not start the next and we just have to stick together. It’s not as important when you arrive on the court as opposed to what you do when you arrive on the court. Whether you’re starting or whether you’re coming off the bench, we need to have strength in our depth and I’m sure as the season goes on we’ll solidify our rotations and that will make us better. It was a little disjointed, but that’s where we are right now. Overall, very pleased with what the opportunity presented to us tonight. Now we have to grow from this. Some things happened that we knew were capable of happening, some mistakes happened that we as coaches probably knew were going to happen so we need to get the players sharpened up.”
On what he got out of tonight as opposed to a practice …
“We really need to tighten up our half-court defense and see if we can create some better habits. I thought USI did a great job of getting to the rim tonight and unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, some of the shots they took didn’t go in. It wasn’t always our defense. So, I think for our team we need to continue to grow into a better half-court defensive team and get really solid there and make sure that we can do that really well before we extend the court. So working both of those things right now, but I think we will go in Friday and help the players get locked in and fundamentally find out what we can do. I thought we allowed too many straight-line drives tonight, but that’s a product of trying to be aggressive. I thought number 12 for them was a tough, fast hard point guard to guard and we had trouble staying in front of her, but that’s what is so good about the game. You definitely can learn from those players who are really trying to raise their level and compete and come in here and beat us. I don’t think there’s a better substitute in practice than what we could get tonight. I thought it was really, really positive.”
UK Student-Athletes
#1, Sabrina Haines, R-SR., G
On Kentucky debut …
“It was definitely something. Just to be able to get back on the court, it honestly made me a little emotional because I haven’t played in over two years. My teammates tonight were everything to me. They supported me and pumped me up, and it was amazing to even be able to step out on the court.”
On confidence tonight and starting game 4-4 FG …
“Shout out to my teammates and my coaches, honestly. They give me the confidence to be able to shoot the ball, and they passed some amazing passes to me. I’ve definitely been committed to getting more shots up before and after practice and thankfully tonight, they went in.”
On sitting out last year/adjustment to Kentucky…
“It was really everything to me. It helped me kind of get used to my new body. You know, it’s tough coming back from an ACL injury, I witnessed it. Luckily for me I know other teammates who have gone through the same thing and they helped me through it. So just being able to come in, learn the system and get used to everything, also bond with my new teammates and coaches meant a lot to me and I’m really appreciative of that year.”
#10, Rhyne Howard, So., G
On being more assertive in second half …
“My teammates came to me and said keep shooting and keep attacking inside. So, I was really just doing it for them.”
On things that had been emphasized in practice that came to fruition in the game …
“We did a lot of offensive executions, so I think tonight that we really moved the ball well and got what we were looking for. We could’ve done better on blocking out, but I think we did have some good plays where we stopped them from getting second and third chances.”
#12, Amanda Paschal, R-Sr., G
On how exhibition games prepare you for the season, differently than practice …
“We have been playing against each other for a long time. Just seeing our competition and seeing what we can do against them is really going to help us. We are going to reflect on that film and take steps one at a time to get better from this game.”
On starting line-up changing from game to game…
“Our team is very versatile. Yes, we have depth, and everybody coming off the bench can score. That helps a lot since we need to replace Taylor (Murray) and Maci (Morris). I think we have a pretty good team and seeing that everybody can score off the bench, that just helps us a lot.”
On defensive effort …
“I’m just trying to get out there and play my role. Help my teammates out, give us a lot of energy on defense and hopefully that helps on offense.”
