‘When they drill into your skull, that’s a little scary.’ UK coach discusses his comeback.
University of Kentucky women’s basketball coach Matthew Mitchell is working his way back toward full involvement with the team while still recovering from brain surgery.
Mitchell underwent the procedure in June to remove blood from his brain following a March accident that left him with a concussion. Mitchell, 49, was hiking with his family in Mexico when he fell and sustained the injury.
During a video teleconference Wednesday, Mitchell spoke with the Herald-Leader for the first time since the surgery and discussed the incident and his long road back to the court.
“I’m feeling good. It’s been a slower recovery than I would have ever imagined but I feel like I am rounding the corner,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell is ramping up to a full schedule through a phased approach. He’s back on the court participating in practice and expects to resume his duties in full by the time the season begins.
“Our staff has just done a great job and has really carried the load, and I feel like I’ll be ready to go when the season starts,” Mitchell said. “For a while I was not cleared to be on the court, so the assistant coaches handled that really well and so now I’m back on the court transitioning back into it ... (We’re) expecting a full recovery and feeling good right now.”
When the coronavirus pandemic shut down college sports last March, Mitchell traveled to Mexico for a vacation with his wife, Jenna, and their two youngest daughters. The accident occurred while he was out getting some exercise.
“I was just on a trail going too fast. I still think a rock popped up out of the earth or something, maybe it was a little earthquake,” Mitchell joked. “I’d been on this trail before, and I just clipped a rock ... I hit really hard, (but) never lost consciousness.”
After returning to Kentucky from Mexico, Mitchell jumped back into his typical routine.
“I thought I had recovered. I was going about my business as usual. I was back into exercise and feeling good ... We were still working 10-hour days,” Mitchell said. “Then in June, I just had this persistent headache that wouldn’t go away and I knew that wasn’t right.”
It turns out, Mitchell had a small crack in his skull through which blood was entering and putting pressure on his brain.
Mitchell had surgery in late June. Though things went smoothly, it was a stressful time.
“When they drill into your skull, that’s a little scary,” Mitchell said. “But the physical aftermath ... it just takes awhile for bone to heal. In fact, the surgical area probably won’t be fully healed for another year.”
UK associate head coach Kyra Elzy absorbed the bulk of Mitchell’s duties during his absence.
“For several weeks there in the summer I was not able to do much at all,” Mitchell said. “She’s been so instrumental in building our program, and she just stepped right in and I just can’t imagine how anybody could have done a better job.”
‘Real proud of them’
Mitchell’s health scare came at an especially inopportune time, as the team was forced to deal with the fallout from the pandemic. On top of that, social upheaval roiled the country over the summer after several high-profile incidents in which Black citizens were killed by police officers.
The UK women’s team took part in the movement for social justice, holding a players-organized march and Unity Fair on the school’s campus. Mitchell was disappointed he could not be fully involved with the team’s response, but took pride in his players’ civic engagement.
“They are a special group of young people ... They care so much for each other and then they also care about what’s going on in the world and were deeply affected by the things that happened this summer,” Mitchell said. “I’m proud of them because I feel like they are accepting of (the) responsibility of being a leader ... There’s so much work to do in our country and you’re not going to solve everything overnight but what you can do is you can get involved.
“I think they showed what quality people we have in our program by taking the time to be engaged ... (I’m) real proud of them for doing that.”
Louisville series
Mitchell also discussed the cancellation of the annual rivalry game with Louisville this season as a result of the pandemic. For the first time since the early 1970s, the UK and U of L women’s basketball teams will not face each other on the court.
“There’s so many things that are disappointing for all of us during the pandemic,” Mitchell said. “They needed to move the game and we certainly want to be good partners in the rivalry. ... It’s just a casualty of the pandemic.”
Mitchell said the two programs have a good working relationship and were in contact before the Cardinals announced their non-conference schedule in mid-October. With the Atlantic Coast Conference instituting a 20-game league schedule, Louisville opted to bump the non-conference tilt with the Cats.
“Once the ACC went to those 20 games ... that was their preference, that we put the game off until next year,” Mitchell said. “We’ll be excited to resume the series.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
