This quote from Kentucky basketball forward Tre Mitchell is a perfect example of why he is a great leader for this young team

This quote from Tre Mitchell shows why he is the perfect player to lead this young Kentucky team.

Andrew Stefaniak | Jan 9, 2024

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Kentucky Wildcats

The 2023-24 Kentucky basketball team is a young one like the John Calipari teams of old, but this team does have some veteran leadership.

The leadership on this team comes from forward Tre Mitchell, who has played a ton of college basketball in his day.

Mitchell was a massive part of why the Cats were able to get the win over Florida to open SEC play, as he had 12 points and 10 rebounds. He has been the glue guy for this team and has done an excellent job keeping this young team calm when things aren't going great.

Kentucky Athletics posted a video of Mitchell talking about the Florida game, and there was one quote that really stuck out, showing how good of a leader Mitchell truly is for this team.

Mitchell had this to say, "That one's (giving the Florida defender the "you're too little sign") the one that got the student section's attention for sure. You know, that's another momentum thing. It's an energy that's on the court. I interacted with the student section a little bit there to get their attention. I knew we were down a little bit. Part of it was to just kind of get people to focus on me a little more and their heckling on me just a little bit, to stay away from my guys and free their minds up a little bit and let them just start attacking how they did."

He purposively angered the student section so they would focus their energy on him rather than his teammates. Knowing that Mitchell is an older player and has been heckled before, this makes sense and shows how much he cares about his teammates and how much he wants to win.

Mitchell is an incredible leader on this team and will be a big reason why the Cats made a deep run in March.

Road test to start the @SEC season ✅ Another important step along #TheJourney 😼

Featuring @tre_mitch33 pic.twitter.com/7gVLztzyaE
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) January 9, 2024