MORGANTOWN — Kentucky women’s basketball has faced a lot of top teams over the course of the season, playing in the SEC. The last time the Wildcats lost, they faced South Carolina, who is a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. They’ve also faced Texas, who is another top seed. As Kentucky head coach Kenny Brooks said in his opening press conference on Friday, before the Round 1 games, Kentucky is battle-tested.
“Playing in the league that we do, the SEC, we have seen a lot of pressing defenses,” guard Tonie Morgan said. “West Virginia is no different. They play a really good defense style of play. I think we’re more prepared with the season we played so far, so I think we’re ready.”
However, Brooks doesn’t think his team has faced a defense identical to West Virginia’s unrelenting press, which his squad will face in the second round on Monday, March 23, at 5 p.m. There were similar ones, as he mentioned, Tennessee from the SEC, and Marshall’s press. In those games, Kentucky beat Marshall by 30, but it crumbled under the Lady Volunteers’ press, losing by two. Neither of those is a 1-to-1 comparison.
“It’s one of the better presses we’ve seen this year,” Brooks said. “It’s not identical to any press we’ve seen this year, but it’s bits and pieces of a lot of them that we’ve seen.”
The key to Kentucky’s success will be to crack the press and find ways around it. Not a lot of teams could break through, with WVU only losing six games, and two of those games were to TCU. It takes a team effort to distribute the ball and spread some of the exhaustion of playing the whole 94 feet of the court.
“We have to all be there,” forward Amelia Hassett said. “It’s not just one person or two people, it’s the whole team. Obviously, we have been working on that throughout the season and just continuing that tomorrow.”
WVU’s guards are what drive the defense. Guard Jordan Harrison was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year for averaging over two steals a game. Sydney Shaw and Gia Cooke can also cause disruption. The guards contributed to three steals against Miami (OH) in the first round.
“They’re relentless,” Brooks said. “Their tenacity is unbelievable. They just keep going. I wonder sometimes whether they have an extra battery pack? Because they just keep going. They play very well off of each other. They know how to funnel somebody to a certain area. They look to attack. They understand the system exceptionally well.”
What makes the defense even more dangerous is how WVU can force a turnover and then quickly drive down the court and score. The Mountaineers take advantage of turnovers. WVU had 21 points off turnovers against the RedHawks.
Brooks said they need to make sure the turnovers don’t snowball into more errors.
“We have to make sure that the turnovers don’t lead to points,” Brooks said. “It’s a live ball. As I mentioned before, you can’t let one turnover turn into two that turns into a bad shot.”
It won’t be easy Monday night, especially in front of another big crowd in the Coliseum. During one of the defensive possessions, Kellogg waved his arms to hype up the crowd. The Mountaineer got a stop.
The crowd will make it even harder for Kentucky to break through WVU’s tough press.
“Obviously, we’re playing on their home court, and they’re going to have a tremendous advantage in that manner. But, it’s going to be two really good teams with contrasting styles, probably a little bit. Who is going to will their way to win is just a matter of playing in March and having the right attitude and being able to understand and deal with anything that happens.”
