By Kevin Erpenbeck

kerpenbeck@kykernel.com

With postseason play two weeks away, UK Hoops head coach Matthew Mitchell is preaching to his team the importance of winning games down the stretch.

Especially when the Cats’ upcoming game against No. 15 Texas A&M has so much at stake to it.

“Big game tomorrow night. We’re right there with them in competition for some positioning in the SEC (Tournament) and probably the NCAA (Tournament),” Mitchell said of Texas A&M. “The best time of the year to be clicking and playing well is at the end. So that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

No. 11 UK (19-6, 8-4 SEC) is in a three-way tie with LSU and Texas A&M for fourth place in the SEC standings. The top four teams of the conference will receive a double bye through the first and second round of the SEC Tournament. The quarterfinals of the tournament begin on March 6.

The Cats and the Aggies were named among the NCAA Selection Committee’s Top 20 seeds last week. The top 16 teams named by the committee on Selection Monday (March 16) will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve worked through three quarters of the schedule and we’re in good position to set ourselves up for the NCAA Tournament and the SEC Tournament,” Mitchell said. “It always helps you the better seed that you can get, so there’s a lot to play for from the big picture point-of-view.”

UK is 4-4 against ranked opponents this season and 2-3 against ranked SEC teams. Mississippi State is in third place in the SEC with a 9-4 conference record, but has a bye this week. The Cats beat the Bulldogs 92-90 in a double-overtime thriller last week.

One element that has helped carry UK to its current positioning is the guard play. Makayla Epps, Jennifer O’Neill, Linnae Harper and Bria Goss are the active leading scorers on the team.

Epps has become a star player for the Cats ever since taking over the starting point position on Jan. 15. The sophomore has scored double-digit points in every game since, including a spectacular 42-point performance in the win against Mississippi State.

But even with a great guard play, Mitchell is still looking to add a strong-post element to the team. In Sunday’s 72-58 road loss to Tennessee, forwards Kyvin Goodin-Rogers, Jelleah Sidney, Alexis Jennings and center Alyssa Rice went a combined 1-for-13 for five points. Only senior forward Azia Bishop made more than one basket as a post player, going 4-for-5 in the game for eight points.

“That was a real rough game and not a good performance,” Mitchell said of Sunday’s loss. “We were out-toughed in the post a lot of times. The 1-for-13 was bad enough, but we didn’t communicate on defense. On the road, you really have to communicate.”

In order for a player to step up and be that dominating post presence, Mitchell said it’s all about remembering the basics, even if those basics were taught so long ago.

“What I’ve tried to tell them is, ‘We’re 25 games into the season. Let’s stop making the same mistakes over and over and let’s figure out a way forward,’” Mitchell said. “Just simple things. We have to stay focused on the fundamentals. That’s probably more important than figuring out what dimension needs to be added.”

Side Note:

UK officials announced that Thursday’s game will proceed as scheduled despite outside temperatures expecting to be below zero for the day. The school is encouraging fans who plan on attending the game to use extreme caution in heading out to Memorial Coliseum. All attendees of the game will be admitted free of charge.

Mitchell said the cold weather, along with the cancellation of UK classes on Monday and Tuesday, has not hindered the team’s preparation for Thursday’s match.

“It really has been of some benefit of them just to have some time off,” Mitchell said. “Our off day for practice is Monday and they (usually) have to deal with classes, so it’s really not a true day off for them. So (the weather) has been no issue for us.”