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  • Mitchell's Cats goal: become their best every day

    By: LARRY VAUGHT

    LEXINGTON — A year ago Kentucky women’s coach Matthew Mitchell and his players were not shy about talking about being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and going to a Final Four, or even winning a national championship, after going to the Elite Eight the previous two seasons.

    Kentucky finished 26-9 and made the NCAA tourney again. However, UK lost in the Sweet 16 to Baylor and this year Mitchell is not saying as much about specific goals.

    “We're just trying to build daily and try to get to our very best. I have an idea of where that would land us, but I don't know that learning a lesson of — and that's what's so fascinating for me is every year — this is my 20th year in coaching, and I just feel like I'm learning more now than I ever have,” said Mitchell Wednesday at UK’s Media Day. “Last season, sort of painting the picture for them of Final Four and those kind of things because you know people around here want it. I want it, staff wants it, fans want it, Mr. (Mitch) Barnhart wants it, everybody wants the Final Four.

    “You never know how the season is going to play out, and we had some adversity hit there in the middle of the season, and I think that particular team didn't handle that real well. We lost a couple games during the conference, and it really did something to our psyche, and I think it hurt them, trying to think about being a No.1 seed and all of that that I had really pushed and put in front of them.”

    So what about this year?

    “I think right now for this particular team, what's very, very important is that they just try to become their best every day. I have an idea of what that could be. I think that could be really, really good and one of the top teams in the country, but I'm not talking to them a lot about results right now,” Mitchell said. “I'm trying to get them to be excellent in their character. I'm trying to get them to understand how important being a great teammate is, just being a great teammate and playing for Kentucky and playing for each other.

    “We'll have the schedule to handle all that we want to handle. If we have success in our schedule, we'll be a very high seed in the NCAA Tournament. When you're a high seed, you get to host it here at home, and that gives you a chance to march through.

    “I think the veterans have been around long enough to know what the standard is here and what people are expecting. We are a top‑five, top‑10 caliber basketball program now, and I can't convince anyone any different even if I wanted to, so we just have to go about the business of being our very best every day, and I think that'll land us where everybody wants us to be. I'm just not sure how long it's all going to take.”

    Senior guard Jennifer O’Neill admits the teams has changed its focus to “one day at a time” rather than a season-long outlook.

    “There's no talk about we want to do this or we want to do that. We say that we have to come in and work and tomorrow we are going to come in and do our best, and we work every day like that,” O’Neill said.

    Sound familiar? It’s similar to what coach John Calipari’s team is doing. There’s no 40-0 speculation by Calipari’s players this year like there was last season. Instead, “getting better” is the theme for Calipari’s team just like it is for Mitchell’s team.

    "Everybody has to play. We have to reach our full potential and that will require nobody worrying about themselves, and having everybody concerned with the team,” O’Neill said. "I just want to lead my team and see how far we can go. As far as expectations, I don't really know but the sky is the limit for this team."

    Mitchell constantly praised his 2012-13 team that went 30-6 and lost to Connecticut in the Elite Eight for its work ethic and maturity.

    “This team is, I think, going to come along at a different pace than the last few teams just because we're so young in the front court. I'm happy with the team that we have and excited about the players that we have, but it just takes time and repetition to play the way that we want to play,” Mitchell said.

    “It's interesting that I do this to myself every year. It would be a little bit easier to kind of sit back maybe and play sort of safe, and it might lead to a more sense of comfort for me as a coach because it's pretty uncomfortable right now because we've got to make some progress over here the next couple weeks because we're about to play a very challenging early schedule, and so you have to have tremendous discipline as a coach.”

    And it takes a total buy-in from the players.

    “You have to believe in what you're doing. You have to believe in your identity as to what the team can be for long‑term success, and they have been a hard‑working group, and right now we're just at a spot where it's tough because there's no other — you've got to go through this wall right now,” Mitchell said.

    “You can't go around it, and you can't have somebody lift you and place you on the other side. You've got to go through this one right now. They're working hard at it, and I think that this will be a spectacular team when we focus on our attitude every day and focus on our core values and just be a Kentucky team. I think they have great, great prospects of success.”
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