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Mattox gets her squad

PHOTO FURNISHED

New heights
UK women's basketball head coach Bernadette Mattox is ready to lead Jaye Barnes (left) and the Wildcats to the first winning season of her head coaching career. Last season the Cats finished 13-15.

Blue beginning: After three seasons playing without a full roster, UK aims for next level

By Aaron Sanderford
SPORTSDAILY EDITOR

Bernadette Mattox has a squad. No, really, she does.

For the first time as UK head coach, Mattox has a full team of players, and with that depth, she hopes to take the Wildcats to the next level.

"This year we've been fortunate to have our full roster practicing," she said. "We have all 13 girls, and that has enabled us to be ahead of where we were a year ago, or any year since I've been here. We've been able to run up and down the court and scrimmage at full strength."

In the Southeastern Conference, though, taking a team to the next level could mean baby steps.

As tough as the SEC is for football, men's basketball and a slew of other sports, only SEC baseball compares favorably with the level of competition in the women's ranks.

"They just reloaded," Mattox said of the SEC. "Obviously, Tennessee didn't lose anybody. Obviously, they're just going to get better. Georgia just absolutely reloaded ... Vandy's going to be tough, Florida's going to be tough. It just doesn't stop."

The approach is fundamental. Mattox is letting her seven returning players play, and said she is concentrating her efforts on teaching six new faces.

That relaxed attitude with the veterans and a focus on the newcomers is spreading to the team.

"It gets more exciting each year," senior guard Tiffany Wait said. "I'm impressed with all of our new players. There's an exciting atmosphere around our program right now."

The excitement comes after a near breakthrough season for the Wildcats last year. UK finished 13-15 after putting itself in strong position to top the .500 mark, and the Cats' eighth-place SEC finish was its best of the Mattox era.

Even national champion Tennessee took notice. UT head coach Pat Summitt told reporters that last season's UK squad was the best she'd seen in years, and star Chamique Holdsclaw echoed her sentiments with a bold statement of her own.

"I think that's a direct indication of the change in this women's basketball program," Mattox said. "When you can get that type of comment from one of the top coaches in the country, who's won three consecutive national championships, and ... from one of the best players in the country, that says a lot about our women's basketball program and where it's going."

Where it's going is anybody's guess, but getting there might be tough.

The Cats have only 10 home games on the schedule this season, because of a brutal SEC rotation and non-conference scheduling that includes playing in a Thanksgiving tournament in Hawaii with five previous NCAA Tournament teams.

The veteran leadership of Wait, junior guard Natalie Martinez, senior forward Jaye Barnes and junior center Katie Vieth are key, Mattox said. If the veterans can help the younger players adjust, a tough road-laden non-conference schedule should have the Cats ready come conference play, she said.

But the most important step might already have been taken. Her players believe, and for the first time in three seasons, depth is on UK's side.

"When I came in as a freshman, coach Mattox told me that we were going to turn this program around," Martinez said. "I definitely believe in coach Mattox."

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