Kentucky’s Janee Thompson in Senior Night spotlight

Janee Thompson is stubborn and willful and rigid.

Those traits kept the guard on the bench most of her freshman season at Kentucky when she averaged just 10.7 minutes a game.

She had bright spots and showed flashes, but remained unmoved.

It drove Matthew Mitchell a little bit crazy.

“She is just really determined,” Mitchell said. “And there is a stubborn streak in her that was not always great at times younger in her career.”

Her headstrong head coach drove her a little bit crazy, too.

“He made it uncomfortable and I didn’t like it at times,” Thompson admitted. “I had to grow up and open my eyes and see what it was he was trying to do for me. He was just trying to make me a better player and a better person.”

All of those aforementioned adjectives — stubborn, willful, rigid, determined — turned out to be important traits that helped Thompson get through one of the most difficult times in her life.

The 5-foot-7 senior from Chicago needed all of the toughness she could muster to get past a terrible injury at South Carolina a year ago. The broken leg and shredded ankle cost her much of her junior season.

Defiant of the timelines and ruthless in her rehab, Thompson made her way back on the court this season and has become a statistical and emotional leader for No. 15 Kentucky, which has had its share of ups and downs this season.

Battling a new sprained ankle — the same one that was so badly injured last season — Thompson will gut out another game Thursday night against No. 24 Missouri.

The night will start with the spotlight on Thompson as the Cats honor their lone senior on Senior Night.

Not always the emotional sort, Mitchell clearly was moved as he discussed his relationship with the senior guard on Wednesday.

“It hasn’t always been easy,” he said. “But a relationship like I have with Janee is particularly gratifying when you butt heads so many times and it seems like you are just spinning your wheels and not going anywhere and then you get out on the other side and you see that it has been worth all the work.”

When there were unexpected departures early in the season, including her former Whitney Young High School teammate Linnae Harper, Thompson rallied the team. She became its unmitigated leader.

She did it even as she was struggling to get back to being the player she once was before the injury.

“Janee is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met,” junior guard Makayla Epps said. “I mean, she broke her leg. Not a lot of people can come back like that. She’s had a real good senior season.”

Sometimes Thompson, who is second on the team in scoring with 12.2 points a game, struggles.

But Epps tries to remind her to relax, remind the senior that it’s not like she’s coming back “from a jammed pinky or something.

“You broke your leg,” Epps said she tells Thompson. “You’re doing fine. You’re doing what we need you to do.’”

Thompson is the player that everyone runs to when they have their own struggles, Epps said.

When things have been bad this season, Thompson is the first to offer a pat on the back and a positive word.

“She’s uplifting,” Epps said. “We’re a very young team and players get down on themselves a lot and sometimes I don’t know what to say and Janee will be like, ‘Epps, calm down. You’ve just got to talk to them.’ … Even with me, she’s my go-to. I look to Janee.”

Mitchell can’t think of a better go-to for leadership than Thompson, who leads the team in assists with 128. She has seven more three-pointers this season (43) than she had in her three previous seasons combined.

It’s not always about her play on the court, either.

“I am just really proud of her leadership,” Mitchell said. “It has been significant for a team that was weakened by the defections at the time, but now I think we are out on the other side stronger because of everything that we have gone through and know that there is no way we would be here without her leadership.”

That toughness and stubbornness — along with a lot of time getting treatments in the training room the past few days — probably will have her on the floor despite her bum ankle for what could be her final game in Memorial Coliseum.

Kentucky hopes to make it one to remember for its senior leader.

“I feel like we all want to make it real special for her and I feel like she’s going to have a big night,” Epps said.

And when Senior Night, which will include more than 30 friends and family who have come from far away to see her play, is over, Mitchell hopes that his stubborn guard will keep leading UK to bigger and better things.

“I just really admire where she is and where she ended up,” her coach said. “We are going to have a great end to this season because of her leadership.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Kentucky’s Janee Thompson in Senior Night spotlight."