Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“A big challenge ahead for us on Sunday vs. Florida. We are going to have to work hard to get prepared. We would love a big crowd on Sunday. It is National Girls and Women in Sports Day and so we are celebrating that. Any young kid that is out there and wants to come to the game and is wearing any jersey that you want to wear from any sport you get in free. We would love for all the kids in our community to come out and celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day. We have got a great, great bunch of young women playing basketball at Kentucky and I think they are an inspiration for our community. We are also going to be hosting our alumni on Sunday, so a lot of great former Wildcats will be in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon. It is a big day for us and obviously the focal point for us will be the Gators and seeing if they can win.”
On how the team performed last night without Rhyne Howard …
“We were obviously concerned about losing our leading scorer and the other thing about Rhyne is that she is such a huge impact in all areas. We have all visited a bunch about how impactful she is. She is often times our team’s leading rebounder, often times our top shot blocker and best defensive player. It was more than just losing offensive production. So we tried to make sure that everybody understood Tuesday morning that we did not have a lot of time to dwell on it or thank about it. We played Monday night and knew pretty certain after the game that she would not play Thursday night, we didn’t know what the future would hold but we had to turn around Tuesday morning and get to work. We just embraced it as a tremendous opportunity for everyone on the team and every coach on the staff and everybody involved with getting ready to play at Missouri. We had to look at ourselves and make up for her absence. I thought the practices were really good and everybody embraced the opportunity and I sure had high hopes for last night but did not have any guarantees or know exactly what we would do. I just thought that they made an A+ and passed it with flying colors. I thought they really got after it on the defensive end and I wanted them to really hustle in that area. We were trying to win the boards and win the transition game and win the turnover battle and we won two out of three or those areas and were aggressive on the boards. We didn’t get quite enough offensive rebounds to win that stat in the game, but it was a really good performance in what was a challenging situation. We have another one here. We were able to beat Florida down there but you take away Rhyne’s contribution in the game and it looks like a pretty even game there. We have to do a good job these next couple of days and see if we can prepare. It is always tough to play your opponent the next time because they figure out some things against you and you figure out some things about them and who can make the adjustments to win the next one. Happy about last night but we have to keep on going and stay focused and see if we can outhustle Florida on Sunday.”
On Amanda Paschal …
“As we gathered Monday night in the offense and were presented with this challenge we started writing down everybody on the team and where we needed a little extra from everybody and evaluate that and talk our way through that Monday night. Amanda right away for me was one of those people that could step up because she just does what she is supposed to do. She is so selfless and such an energy player and hustle player for us and just diving on the floor for loose balls and taking charges and making baskets when needed but never trying to dominate the ball. She is a person who at one point in her career was a real scorer. She was a big-time scorer her freshman year at Gulf Coast College when they won the national championship. She was their go-to player down the stretch when they won a national championship. So she knows what it feels like to have the ball and need to do something at a big moment. I just talked to her about that. What I said was, ‘I want you to take it back to the old days when it was your role,’ and she was fantastic last night. She played with great poise and here is the other thing. People kept passing up wide open 3s to get into the paint and create a better opportunity and we just kept working and were able to finally break down the defense a couple of times and shoot the ball around the goal instead of getting lulled into this 3-point contest with Missouri. I was so impressed with Amanda and the team. I thought Sabrina Haines passed up some open shots last night to get Amanda a look. I thought Jaida Roper passed up some shots to create Blair Green a look. I thought we really played in a cohesive way last night and we need somebody to step up and take the reins and Amanda did a great job of that.”
On Rhyne’s timetable to return …
“There is no exact science on it but it is a fractured finger and everybody heals a little differently. It will not be operated on and we will allow the bone to heal. The best guess we have right now and what we are saying is mid-February and not sure exactly what game but as of today it is not a season ender and we feel very fortunate for that. We are looking around that four week mark to see if we can get her back. We are optimistic about that. The hand surgeon has looked at it and feels like that is a reasonable time table for us to put out there. We do not know exactly how everything will happen but we do know how important she is not only to our team but she has really captivated the Big Blue Nation and there is so much affection for her. We are not going to try to play any tricks or anything, we are going to try to keep everybody up to day and know how great of a season she is having and how much interest people have. We are going to keep everybody up to date, but that is the best we know right now.”
On NCAA Tournament seeding …
“It is an interesting exercise to go through depending on what kind of team you have. There have been years where we have been really confident we had among the most talented teams and then there were years we had a real gritty team that could over achieve. We have always been in that top four for the last decade or so but we have got there different ways whether we won the championship or able to get into that fourth seed, we have found a way more times than not to be there. It kind of depends on the team that we have. This one is very simple right now because the only way we can take care of anything is winning games. With Rhyne’s absence it puts everyone on high alert with a high sense or awareness and it reduces our margin for error so we have to be really focused and have great practices and come out and compete really hard. I am really not looking beyond Sunday. The best thing for our team right now is if we could get a win on Sunday, that improves our position for seeding. It is very competitive right now in our conference and that is how we have always done it. If we could take care of business in our conference then we have always been in pretty good shape on the national scene. I am super proud of the team for handling the first eight games the way that we have with five of eight on the road and where we are right now. I am excited about what we have accomplished. We got an opportunity now where we have to get into the second half and keep grinding and keep going and January we finished well with a win and got another tough month ahead in February and we have to work hard and stay focused on how we can win games and I do feel good about the formula the team has to focus on to win. If we can keep hammering away at that, all the great stuff at the end of the season will materialize and we will be excited to see that happen.”