• How they got here: Fourth-seeded UK beat No. 13 seed Liberty (83-77) and No. 5 seed Michigan State (70-52) at Louisville’s Freedom Hall to qualify for its first Sweet 16 in 28 years. Kentucky, picked 11th in the 12-team Southeastern Conference, finished with a school-record 11 league wins to place second in the standings behind Tennessee. Kentucky (27-7) beat tournament qualifiers Mississippi State, LSU and Vanderbilt along the way, sharing the Tigers as a common opponent with Nebraska. NU beat LSU 77-63 on Dec. 20; Kentucky won at LSU 71-62 on Jan. 28.
• The coach: SEC coach of the year Matthew Mitchell, 60-39 in his third season, guided Kentucky to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in his first two seasons in Lexington. The 38-year-old Mitchell previously spent two seasons as the head coach at Morehead State and served as an assistant under an impressive lineup of prestigious SEC coaches in Mickie DeMoss (Kentucky), Carolyn Peck (Florida), Carol Ross (Florida) and Pat Summitt (Tennessee).
• The star player: Junior Victoria Dunlap, the SEC player of the year, leads the Wildcats in scoring (17.7 points per game), rebounding (8.3 per game), steals and blocks. The 6-foot-2 forward ranks atop the SEC in steals and offensive rebounds. She scored 21 in the second-round win over Michigan State and was also selected for the SEC all-defensive team.
• The rookie: A’dia Mathies, the SEC freshman of the year, scored a career-best 32 points in Kentucky’s opening-round victory over Liberty. A 5-9 guard, she was the consensus top prep player in Kentucky out of Louisville a year ago. She’s scored in double figures in 25 games, including a 25-point outburst in the Wildcats’ win over Mississippi State in the semifinals of the SEC tournament.
• NCAA tournament history: 6-6 in its seventh appearance. Kentucky advanced past the second round previously in 1982, losing in the regional final to eventual champion Louisiana Tech.
• History vs. Nebraska: 1-2. The Wildcats won the last meeting, 98-92 on March 13, 1999, in the first round of the NCAA tournament at UCLA.
— Mitch Sherman
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