Flashes of 2010 team remind Kentucky that it has more than enough to continue success

The team that started Kentucky’s run of seven straight NCAA Tournament trips had less than this.

So to the doubters and critics who look at Kentucky and see the transfers who dominated the headlines and just the six players who stuck around, Amber Smith has a message.

“We’ve preached to them that we have more than enough,” she said. “They have each other.”

Smith, now a support associate for this season’s team, was the point guard on that 2010 team that put UK back on the national radar, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

She sees a lot of similarities between this season’s team with just two starters back and six returning players after the mass exodus of players, commitments and assistant coaches.

“Back then we didn’t have the depth, but that wasn’t a problem or anything like that,” said Smith at Kentucky’s annual Media Day on Friday. “With everything going on, everybody’s making a big deal out of it, but we’ve done it and it can be done now.”

That 2010 team that featured the league’s Player of the Year in Victoria Dunlap and the SEC Freshman of the Year in A’dia Mathies won 28 games with just seven players playing a bulk of the minutes.

Three players averaged nearly 30 minutes.

“Coach Mitchell was like, ‘You’re going to play 35 minutes’ and I was like, ‘OK, I came here to play,’” Smith said.

Mitchell doesn’t mind the comparisons to one of the most beloved teams in his time at Kentucky. But he thinks this team might have more talent overall.

And players on this team have experience winning games after going 25-8 last season and advancing to the Sweet 16.

He definitely doesn’t mind the comparisons about the special type of players he saw on that 2010 team and this team, which opens its season on Nov. 11.

When she first joined the staff, Smith was a little bit worried that this season’s Kentucky team would be lacking what she considers a key component to success: dancing ability.

“They like to have fun and dance,” she said. “I saw them this past week dancing and getting along with each other. That’s important.”

It’s about finding a mix that not only wants to play for one another, but for Kentucky, she said.

“The chemistry, the relationship,” she said. “That was the biggest thing for us. We were like sisters. We had each other’s back no matter what. Those are the two biggest things, just having fun, having that chemistry off the court and how it translates on the court.”

Chemistry isn’t a problem for the six returning players or the six that have joined the team since then in the form of walk-ons, late adds and transfers.

“The returners, we all want to be here and I think that shows on the court,” sophomore guard Maci Morris said. “We’ve tried to show the newcomers that’s how we want it to be. We want it to be hard work all the time, play with a lot of energy and effort.”

Junior forward Alyssa Rice said getting through the difficulty of last year helped make this team closer.

“We helped support each other through that time, so we’re happy that’s in the past and looking forward to the season to come,” she said.

This group has another connection to that 2010 group.

They’re both aware of the doubters and the outside chatter that they won’t be good enough.

For the 2010 team, it was being picked to finish 11th in the league in the preseason. The number 11 was pasted all over the facility where they went undefeated that season.

“These girls are aware of what’s going on on the outside, what’s being said,” Smith said, “but they’re not letting it affect them.”

This team knows that people have doubts. The people wearing the jerseys aren’t among those doubters.

“People are asleep on us,” star senior Makayla Epps said. “They’re asleep on Kentucky, think our run is over. We know it’s not.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Flashes of 2010 team remind Kentucky that it has more than enough to continue success."