‘Do or die’: Inside the team meeting that saved Kentucky’s women’s basketball season
Kyra Elzy called it “do or die.”
The phrasing reflected the urgency of the situation for the Kentucky women’s basketball program just one month ago, with a seemingly lost season spiraling toward an end.
UK dropped to 9-11 overall and 2-8 in Southeastern Conference games with a home loss to No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 10, a scrappy, nine-point defeat that saw the Wildcats limit the Gamecocks to their second-lowest scoring total of the season.
In a vacuum, the result was a moral victory for the Cats.
But in hindsight, it was the moment that kick-started a late-season resurgence that’s still unfolding.
Entering Saturday, Kentucky had won eight straight games, the last of which being UK’s best win of the season over No. 6 LSU on Friday night in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Coming one day after UK secured its NCAA Tournament spot with a second-round SEC Tournament win over Mississippi State, the LSU win was a statement of intent, an indication of what Kentucky can do and has already done in March.
And it can be traced back to that South Carolina defeat a month prior.
“We had a team meeting after our last loss when everybody was back and (it) was like, ‘We have to win. We have to play hard. We have to do the things we have to do to go to the tournament,’” UK sophomore guard Treasure Hunt revealed Friday night.
Star senior guard Rhyne Howard called it “go time” when reflecting on that moment.
“There was no other option than for us to start winning and just having fun with the game,” Howard said.
Elzy used the more direct phrasing mentioned above.
“Even though we did not beat South Carolina, I felt our confidence grow in that game,” Elzy said, noting that UK trimmed a fourth-quarter deficit that was as large as 18 points to as little as seven points against the nation’s best team.
“I could physically see the confidence in us.”
So what gets discussed in a team meeting that ends up saving the season?
“The staff said, ‘This is what we’re going to bring.’ We went through each individual player, ‘What are you going to bring?’” Elzy explained. “It’s do or die right now. So it’s either win or go home. And we don’t want to finish the season like this.”
Dating back to a phone call with the Herald-Leader before the season started in October, Elzy has long said that Kentucky “has enough” when it comes to the talent and players needed to win at the level expected.
Elzy reiterated Friday night that she still believed this even while UK lost eight of nine games in conference play, a stretch defined by player absences due to injury and suspension.
“I was confident in this team. I knew we had enough,” Elzy said. “We were down and out early due to injuries and different reasons. But this team is resilient. We didn’t have any quit in us. So we just continued to battle.”
Continuing to battle has led Kentucky to its current spot: An NCAA Tournament team, now with a glittering résumé win to its name, playing the kind of basketball at both ends that Elzy and her players envisioned in October.
It’s also allowed the personality of this Kentucky team to again show itself.
Robyn Benton and Howard were performing sniper celebrations after making three-pointers against LSU.
The entire team — coaching staff included — hit “The Griddy” on the Bridgestone Arena court after Friday’s win.
“When we celebrate it brings a lot to us. I would say it makes us play better, play harder and continue our run,” Hunt said.
“When we’re high energy and just having fun, that’s when the game is easier for us, than when we’re stressing out or trying to do specific things,” Howard added. “So if we know we can dance around and have fun, then it’s like, ‘Oh.’ We can just go out and continue this energy and keep this energy and use it to our advantage.”
After that home loss to South Carolina in early February, Elzy repeated another common refrain from this season: She thought UK’s struggling offense was affecting its defense.
“When we weren’t scoring, we gave them some easy scoring opportunities. But there’s something about when we see that ball go through the net,” Elzy said Feb. 10. “It gave us some energy, but then I thought we turned our defense up . . . that’s what we have to do more consistently across the board.”
In the eight games since leading into Saturday, UK averaged 78 points per contest along with an average field goal percentage of 44.4%.
Defensively, the Cats allowed an average of just 64 points per contest along with an average field goal percentage of 40.34% during this stretch.
In simple terms: Good offense has led to good defense. Wins lead to celebrations. And team meetings designed to save seasons and extend legendary careers sometimes do just that.
Saturday
Kentucky vs. Tennessee
What: SEC women’s basketball tournament semifinals
When: 7:30 p.m. EST
Where: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Seeding: UK No. 7, Tennessee No. 3
Records: UK 17-11, Tennessee 23-7
Last meeting: Tennessee beat Kentucky, 84-58, on Jan. 16, 2022, in Knoxville, Tenn.
