Quick Start, Hot Shooting Signal UK’s Continued Improvement
It was no ordinary hump day for the Wildcats.
Wednesday morning brought an early wakeup call for Kentucky, as UK was set to host Charlotte for an 11 a.m. tip.
Any concerns about the Cats’ energy level – or that of a crowd that included 1,000-plus grade schoolers – were assuaged quickly.
“That’s what we’re working for no matter what time we tip off,” Matthew Mitchell said. “We’re trying to come out focused and paying attention to the details and I thought we did that really well at the beginning of the game.”
Kentucky made five 3-pointers and poured in 29 points in an explosive first-quarter performance to put Charlotte (6-2) in its rear-view mirror. The Cats never trailed en route to an 86-39 victory to move to a perfect 8-0 to start the 2019-20 season behind a career high-tying 29 points from star sophomore Rhyne Howard.
“What a performance by the team today,” Mitchell said. “Really proud of them. Just got off to a great start, shot the ball great and we’ve been working on that since June and it’s been a little rocky to start the season, but I thought we shot up to our capability.”
Mitchell has been adamant that his team, in spite of early struggles from 3, would be a solid outside shooting team. After Wednesday’s 10-of-22 showing, UK has now made double-digit treys in three of its last four outings.
“it’s very important for them to see results in a game,” Mitchell said. “We shoot a bunch of them and we think we have some good 3-point shooters. It was a really good day for us from the 3-point stripe. There’s going to be some games coming up where we’ll need to do that.”
Wednesday’s win was the fourth straight blowout to begin a six-game home stretch that leads into two challenging final non-conference games against Louisville (at Rupp Arena on Dec. 15) and on the road at California (Dec. 21). After that, a 16-game Southeastern Conference schedule awaits.
“We definitely have a lot of room for growth,” said Sabrina Haines, who scored 16 points to reach double figures for the fifth time in eight games. “It’s very, very early in the season. We’re a veteran team and we know that we have to get a lot better before we get into SEC and before we even get to the next teams we play after this. It’s just continuous improvement and just knowing that every day we want to get better in practice and games.”
There’s no mystery about where that mentality comes from.
“I’m happy that we continue to improve, but I just want us to improve more,” Mitchell said. “I guess I’m a little greedy right now. I just think that we’re going to have to be a real sound, solid, fundamentally sound basketball team to reach our potential.”
