By Kevin Erpenbeck

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When UK Hoops guard Makayla Epps arrived at UK last year, she was worried about making an impression with her coaches and adjusting to the college game. Some of the criticisms against her, however, were being out of shape and committing numerous mental defensive errors.

Now, the sophomore guard is ready to make a big impact on this year’s team, and correct her first-year issues.

“Things are going great for me,” Epps said. “I worked extremely hard over the summer by watching what I ate, cutting back on all the soda. I can actually move on the court now and go a couple trips more than two or three. My body’s in great shape and I’m loving it.”

Epps’ decision to go on a diet was in anticipation of her seeing more minutes on the court this year. With four frontcourt players having never played a minute at UK, the guards will be heavily relied upon to lead the team with their experience.

“We have to find two (players) that really want to get up there and play Kentucky defense and pressure the ball,” said head coach Matthew Mitchell. “We are not a tremendously huge team. We are not going to be a great shot-blocking team, and we don’t want to be. We want to be the best charge-taking team in the country.”

Epps emerged as a regular contributor towards the end of last season, scoring a career-high 16 points against South Carolina. She finished the final 10 games of the year averaging 7.4 points, which was three points higher than her seasonal average.

The 5-foot-10 guard also learned to play more of an aggressive one-on-one defense as her freshman season wore on. But by being out of shape, Epps was still unable to keep up with the faster guards she faced.

By gaining more playing time and producing more on the court, Epps’ confidence level has grown to a greater height than it ever was during her first year.

“That’s the big difference between Makayla as a freshman and Makyla as a sophomore,” Epps said. “I was new to the style of play, and new to the college lifestyle. But now, it’s like ‘You somewhat did it last year. Now you’re just going to go do it; you have no choice.’ I have to own it.”

That high level of confidence was seen in the exhibition game against Pikeville, where Epps scored 18 points and was two assists and two rebounds away from collecting a triple-double in the Cats’ 141-63 win.

Mitchell was impressed with the effort from his emerging guard, albeit against a team with an inferior level of talent.

“She has worked really hard and she just looks super,” Mitchell said. “She’s a different player than before, that’s easy to spot. She still has a ways to go to be able to stay focused defensively, but that will come with some reps. She will be a real key to our success.”

With a year of experience under her belt, Epps hopes to pass on what she learned during her freshman year to the young players in the frontcourt, much like senior guard Jennifer O’Neill did for her last season.

“I’ve watched film from last year with (assistant coach Christian Stefanopoulos), and I’m like ‘Who is No. 25 (Epps’ number)? That can’t be me,” Epps said. “It’s just been a huge improvement and it’s self-motivating. If the freshmen now aren’t satisfied with how they are, I’m going to keep them motivated and say ‘If I did it, you can do it.’”