Notes: UK women hope more fearless frontcourt helps vs. Gamecocks

It’s no secret why South Carolina is the nation’s No. 3 team.

It’s not a mystery how the Gamecocks went undefeated in Southeastern Conference play this season, just the second team to do it in league history.

South Carolina gets big play from its bigs: SEC Player of the Year A’ja Wilson and senior Alaina Coates.

“That’s South Carolina’s bread and butter right now is pounding the ball into the post,” UK senior Janee Thompson said of the Gamecocks, who have topped the Cats twice already this season.

Wilson averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds in the two wins over Kentucky this season and Coates averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds.

So when the Cats get a third shot at South Carolina in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament on Saturday night, the focus will be firmly on Coates and Wilson, but UK coaches and players feel better about their counterpunch.

Since that last loss to South Carolina, Kentucky’s frontcourt has improved dramatically with Evelyn Akhator averaging a double-double (12.3 points, 10.6 rebounds) and Alexis Jennings adding 11.5 points per game.

Alyssa Rice has had two of her best games of the year in this tournament so far. Freshman Batouly Camara has been stronger.

“We have the post players that can do a good job and match up with what South Carolina wants to do, with their primary attack on the offensive and defensive end,” Thompson said. “If we can win that battle, we’ll have a really good chance of winning that game.”

Junior Makayla Epps said UK’s forwards have been much more confident in the past few weeks and much more productive.

“They work hard and I love seeing it happen for them in the game,” she said. “I feel like our bigs can match with them. I’m excited to see how we’re going to play against them tomorrow.”

This doesn’t mean South Carolina’s guards are too shabby, either. The Gamecocks still have two-time SEC Player of the Year in Tiffany Mitchell and a host of other stars.

But Matthew Mitchell said he’s eager to see how far UK has come since that loss in Columbia on Feb. 4.

“We’re not the best team in the country, but we’re getting close to being as good as we can be, which is the goal that you set out to have,” he said. “This bunch has become a team and I’m real proud of that and they’re going to have a chance to show that tomorrow and in the NCAA Tournament.”

High praise for Thompson

It was a brutal assessment, but it was just what Thompson needed to hear a few weeks ago.

“She basically told me I wasn’t doing the best job leading,” Thompson said of a chat with her position coach, Tamika Williams-Jeter. “She said I was doing an OK job. But I wasn’t doing the best job I could be doing.”

Thompson took that to heart and said she spent a lot of time early in the season trying to heal up mentally and physically from the broken leg she suffered last season instead of leading.

“Once I stopped worrying about myself and worrying about my teammates more, I think we started to get better,” said Thompson, who started the Cats’ big run on Friday by scoring 13 points in the second quarter.

And while her big night was impressive, it’s the things she’s doing behind the scenes that make the senior special, Mitchell said.

“Janee Thompson is doing the best leadership job that we’ve had done at Kentucky in my nine years,” he said. “When she said she’s trying to provide leadership, she’s not trying, she’s doing it.”

At practice on Friday morning, it was Thompson running the show, instructing teammates. She’s become like another coach on the bench. Some players lead by cheering and encouraging, but Thompson takes it to a different level.

“It’s just locked in, focused and it’s very substantive, not surface and rah-rah,” Mitchell said. “It is great attitude, great content, great instruction.”

‘Having a little fun’

Kentucky’s players were being funny, but it created quite a scary sight for Cats fans when forward Alyssa Rice carried guard Taylor Murray off the Veterans Memorial Arena after a big win over Florida.

“That was not serious, definitely,” Mitchell said. “They were just having a little fun.”

Murray was limited to 18 minutes after suffering a deep thigh bruise when taking a knee to the thigh.

“A little stringer, charley-horse-type deal that is very painful,” Mitchell said. “When she would get out and get playing, she could move, it would settle down. Then when she would sit, it would tighten back up.”

As UK has had to do with players like Epps (knee) and Thompson (ankle) among others, the plan for Murray will be to “treat the heck out of it,” the coach said.

“We have the best, in my mind, trainer in the world,” he said giving a nod to Courtney Jones. “We believe she’ll be ready to go.”

The way they were

The Kentucky that beat up on Florida on Friday and the Kentucky that lost to the Gators in Gainesville on Jan. 31 looked like completely different teams, but Florida Coach Amanda Butler said it’s not that UK went through some sort of makeover.

“They haven’t changed a lot in terms of different plays or different schemes,” she said. “I think that they’re just doing what they do at a much higher level. I think, if anything, they probably narrowed and consolidated what they’re doing as opposed to broadening what they’re doing.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Notes: UK women hope more fearless frontcourt helps vs. Gamecocks."