By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune intern
The women’s basketball season kicks off Friday for Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell, his coaches and his players when the Wildcats take on Miami of Florida in the first game of the Kentucky Classic.
But you really will need a scorecard if you go. The Wildcats, ranked No. 19 in preseason polls, have a new cast of assistant coaches and six players who weren’t on the roster when the season ended last March.
The off-season was tumultuous for Mitchell because of the exodus of players and coaches. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Mitchell has lost seven players, three assistant coaches and two commitments from his top-25 recruits.
Most coaches would not survive such an off-season, but Mitchell did and he’s ready to move forward as he opens his 10th season at the helm looking for his 250th win, the most in UK women’s basketball history.
“I just think it’s time now for us to really get excited and get focused on the players who have shown a tremendous commitment to our program and are working so hard and are so excited to go to practice every day,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell wasted no time filling the holes in his staff. The first addition was former UK associate coach Kyra Elzy, hired in late April. Elzy spent four years at UK before returning to her alma mater, the University of Tennessee. Elzy spent four years as Tennessee and coached both as an assistant coach and associate head coach.
Mitchell followed a similar track when he hired Niya Butts. She worked as an assistant coach at UK from 2003-07 under both former head coach Mickie DeMoss and Mitchell. Butts, the former University of Arizona head coach, spent the past eight seasons at Arizona before being let go.
Mitchell’s third hire was another UK connection. Amber Smith, his former point guard, graduated from Kentucky in 2011 and spent the past three years coaching. She was a graduate assistant at Tennessee under the late Pat Summitt before serving as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech the past two seasons.
Mitchell completed his staff in late May with the hire of Hall of Fame coach Lin Dunn. Dunn has more 40 years worth of coaching both at the college and professional levels. Dunn, who retired in 2014, came out of retirement to help the women’s basketball program get back on the right path.
Then it was time for Mitchell to add players. In May, UK announced the addition of Jaida Roper, a four-start prospect from Memphis, Tenn., who will be the only true freshman on the roster this season.
A month later, UK announced the addition of Stony Brook transfer Ogechi Anyagaligbo. Due to NCAA rules Anyagaligbo will not be eligible to play until the 2017-18 season.
In August, Mitchell added two walk-ons in Jessica Hardin and Rachel Potter, two former Kentucky high school standouts. Mitchell announced in early October that he awarded Hardin a scholarship. Hardin will be a senior and Potter a junior this season for the Cats.
It was August and Mitchell still needed to add bodies to his roster. As a result, UK held a tryout on Aug. 30 and added two more walk-ons in Paige Poffenberger and LaShae Halsel. Poffenberger will be a freshman and Halsel a sophomore this season this season.
Having six new players and four new coaches would be a challenge for any head coach, but Mitchell insists it’s not.
“Well, at this point, it’s not challenging at all, because I think we have great people involved right now,” Mitchell said. “I think it’s definitely time for us to move forward with this team, and so many positive things have happened for us in the last six months, and it’s been well documented and much discussed, everything that led to the last six months.”
Mitchell said he learned a lot from the events in the off-season, which strengthened the relationship between him and the six returning players; Evelyn Akhator, Makenzie Cann, Makayla Epps, Maci Morris, Taylor Murray and Alyssa Rice.
Mitchell’s biggest concern heading into the season is how he can make this team successful like he has done so many times before.
“The challenges right now, really, are for me, unrelated to what we have all sat in this room and discussed many times and in other rooms many times,” Mitchell said. “So the challenge that does face us now is how do we put this team together and how does this particular edition of the Wildcats become successful, and no two teams are the same.”
The team’s goal is to make it further than the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, where the season ended in March against the University of Washington.
All eyes will be on Mitchell and his team to see if they can turn the events of the off-season into a blessing in disguise. The Cats start their season at 7 p.m. Friday. They play again at 7 p.m. Saturday against the University of Albany. The Classic concludes at 7 p.m. Sunday when Albany takes on Miami. All three games will be played at Memorial Coliseum.
Kindsey Bernhard is a journalism senior at the University of Kentucky. She is from Ft. Wright and played high school basketball at Notre Dame Academy.