Chasity Patterson had 30 points in UK's win over Murray Wednesday. (SEC Photo)
Rhyne Howard has been making plenty of preseason news for the Kentucky women’s basketball team with all the honors she’s been receiving nationally but Wednesday she made a different kind of news. The preseason All-American and current Southeastern Conference Player of the Year did not play in Wednesday’s season-opening 86-60 win over Murray State because new coach Kyra Elzy suspended her for the first two games for a violation of team rules.
Murray coach Rechelle Turner admitted she was disappointed Howard did not play because “we kind of wanted to watch her up close.” That’s how good Howard is.
But Turner also said the suspension more than justified that UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart made the right decision promoting Elzy two weeks ago when head coach Matthew Mitchell retired because Elzy made the right decision for her team.
“She is a proven winner and knows what it takes,” Turner said. “That says a lot about her (to suspend Howard and teammate Tatyana Wyatt).”
Yes it does but it also is not surprising. Elzy played at Tennessee and understands no player is bigger than the team — not even a player as gifted as Howard.
Wyatt was suspended for three games for a violation of team rules. Howard will miss two games for “not upholding the standards of the program.” Those are words I never thought I would hear used in connection with Howard.
“Both young ladies are great people. They made a bad mistake,” Elzy said. “I am 100 percent confident they will be intentional in making better decisions moving forward.”
They better be because Elzy has set the tone that she will not tolerate whatever kind of mistakes the two players made.
Elzy said she did not want to have to make the decision she did but that players have to be held accountable and learn there are consequences for every decision that is not the right one. She will demand players be first class, disciplined, respectful and grateful for the opportunity to play at UK.
“That will be an everyday thing here at Kentucky,” Elzy said. “There is an expectation and standard we hold ourselves to. If you fall short, there will be consequences. Then we take them and move on.”
Kentucky won with a defense that forced 32 turnovers, including 19 steals, and turned that into 40 points. The Cats got 35 bench points.
Starting point guard Chasity Patterson had 30 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field and 12-for-13 at the foul line. She also had eight steals six rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes. Turner called her a “beast defensively” with the way she disrupted Murray’s offense.
Patterson said the team understood it had to adjust to not having Howard.
“I knew I had to step up more. I think we did a great job. We were attacking and playing inside-out, so that was good on our end,” Patterson said.
