Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: Sweet 16 Set As ‘Kats Exit

By Mike Siroky

There was one more chance for the best conference in women’s basketball, the Southeastern, to add to its Sweet 16 contingent.  

Kentucky, at NC State, was another SEC-ACC showdown.

The other things we found out in qualifying is top seeds Baylor and Notre Dame won at home, meaning Texas A&M will get ND in the Chicago Regional and South Carolina plays Baylor in Greensboro, as we projected earlier.

We also found out that when you sell your game to the Disney corporation, you get lessened.

 None of the Monday games were broadcast by the “exclusive” home, ESPN.  

That included UConn and two No. 1s. 

Imagine if CBS tried to not broadcast Sweet 16 qualifiers in the men’s game. The respect distance widens.

Onto the final SEC qualifier:

 N.C. State (27-5) 72, Kentucky (25-7) 57

It was not food from the start for the Kats, down 13-7 when they needed parity

The Wolfpack had four score, while senior Morris was doing it alone for UK. 

Rookie or the year Rhyne Howard needed to find her game, because 38 percent from the field would not get it done.

 NC State was hitting 60 percent so the defense also had to gear up.

“What we've told our players is we have to try to be the best version of Kentucky that we can possibly be,” coach Matthew Mitchell had said. “So that means we would like for it to be up-tempo. We've won games at different paces this year. And I'm proud of the team for that. We've been able to operate and some low-scoring games and, and um, find a way to win.

“And we've been able to be in some high-scoring games and find a way to win sort of like yesterday was.

“ So we obviously would like to have an up-tempo game, but your opponent dictates a lot of that as well. It's at this time of year you're going to play somebody really good and, m, I think you just have to work so hard to keep the focus on what you do well and try to be the very best of that that you can be. “

His connection with NC. State coach Wes Moore goes all the way back to Moore claiming he paid him to lay sod many years ago.

“Well, I can’t confirm the hundred dollars,” Mitchell said. “I don’t remember a hundred dollars. That's not the way I remember it, but I did lay a yard full of sod of at Moore’s house.

“ That's been 20 years ago this coming fall is when that happened and I was a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee and it’s a long story, but I did end up laying sod at his beautiful home in Chattanooga and we spent that day together.

“That was the beginning of what’s been a really beneficial relationship for me. He’s been a person that I've really looked up to and could learn from and he’s been gracious with his time over the years .

“He’s always has such a well-coached team and a tough competitor and his teams are tough to play against.”

“What we try to focus on is how are we playing now and how are they playing now and go from there.

“ So you just try to gather whatever information you can from any recent games in this compressed period of time.”

Howard said: “Oh, we know that they are very aggressive team and they're going to push in transition and work hard and play very tough defense.

“We've been preparing like we prepared for that by just conditioning hard all the time and we knew it was going to be tough so we just and endured and fought through everything that was going on.

“Oh, it was a great experience. Learning experience. Definitely. It just got me ready for what I will be going through. My teammates helped me. They'd been where I've been. I just look up to them.”

Junior running mate  Jaida Roper said: “Of course, playing at your home is always more exciting. You know, you have the fans on your side, but I feel like we've been playing really well on the road this year and we're ready for the challenge.

“Coach Mitchell talks to us a lot about focusing on Kentucky. We know they like the crash the boards. 

“So we've been working hard on just finding people and rebound it and trying to get it out and push it as hard as we can consecutively so we can kind of wear on their condition a little bit because we have been working really hard with our conditioning.

“ So just trying to focus on Kentucky. That’s our main goal.”

At the end of one quarter, it was N.C. State by eight, with a 2-1 rebounding edge. Roper hit two free throws with a second left. The Wolfpack already had four 3s.

With Howard hitting two 3s among her 11 points, they cut the edge to five in the second quarter which is where it stayed. 

Howard scored 15 but Morris was shut down after scoring five of the first seven N.C. State was still 12 ahead in rebounds.

It was inevitable. Kentucky could not hang with N.C. State.

The Wolfpack broke the game open early in the fourth, scoring seven in a row to take a 60-48 lead. The Kats would cut the deficit to single digits three times, but UK could get no closer.

N.C. State won the rebounding battle 50-31, led in second-chance points 17-5 and outscored Kentucky 22-12 in the paint.

The Wolfpack had four players out with injuries and only two substitutes available. All their starters played at least 33 minutes each, one of them a freshman.

 Yet, at the end, they had enough left to hang a 19-9 closeout quarter on the Kats.

“Just couldn't be prouder of a team and a group of young ladies,” Moore said. “Been through some adversity, and they just keep amazing me.”

"They really  were focused on trying to take away Maci and Rhyne and just make it tough on them to score," Mitchell said, "and we just could not get the ball in the basket.

“Just a tough night when you shoot low 30s from the field to beat an outstanding team, and the reason we shot a low percentage was, credit North Carolina State’s defense,” Mitchell said. “I thought it was difficult to get open all night.”

With the loss, the careers of Morris and fellow senior Taylor Murray came to an end. Morris finished her career in sixth place on the UK career scoring list with 1,692 points.  She scored 18 in her farewell.

 Howard built on her fresh legacy with 21. She has 525 points. She has 74 3s. She has 68 steals. She has 212 rebounds. She is a preseason all-conference player for 2019-2020.

They drew 2,682