Kentucky WBB forward Ajae Petty is in the midst of a rough patch

It wasn’t too long ago when Kentucky women’s basketball forward Ajae Petty scored 23 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in a 95-73 loss to Vanderbilt.

Petty’s 20-20 double-double was only the third such effort in school history. Valerie Still had two 20-20 games, with her last one coming in 1982. The consensus quickly became that Petty needed help on the offensive side of the floor. Head coach Kyra Elzy needed some other Wildcats to step up and contribute to take some of the load off of Petty.

However, ever since the Vanderbilt game, Petty hasn’t been the same. In the last four games, Petty has only reached double-digit points once. Then, against Alabama, things hit rock bottom. Against the Tide, Petty only managed to score two points on 1-4 (25.0%) shooting.

So, what happened? Did her powers get stripped away like Kevin Durant in Thunderstruck? It seems that the answer to this is more of a mental game than anything. Following the Arkansas game, Elzy revealed that Petty has been dealing with some frustrations.

“She’s proven what she can do this year,” Elzy mentioned. “Have to have more movement from her. She’ll go back and watch the film, that’s what I always count on Ajae [to do]. She’ll watch the film, probably on the way home, make adjustments. She’s coachable after she sees it. She’ll be ready for the next game.”

Where did it go wrong for Petty?

Petty is clearly not pleased with her play as of late. Losing is frustrating, and this team has gone through a lot of it. It doesn’t help that some of her Herculean efforts have gone to waste, like in the Vanderbilt game.

Maybe that game was sort of a last straw for Petty. Perhaps after she did literally anything she could have done to help Kentucky win against Vanderbilt, she finally let it get to her head due to the 22-point loss. It has been a one-woman show for the majority of the season. A handful of her teammates have not produced at a winning level. Petty just hasn’t had adequate help, and she is (more likely than not) tired of it.

However, that’s now starting to affect her performance on the court. You could have written off her two points against South Carolina as a fluke. The Gamecocks are uber-talented and it could have just been a bad night. Then, things carried over to Arkansas and Alabama, where she had eight combined points against the two SEC teams.

Whatever is going on, Kentucky needs it to be turned around, and fast. The ‘Cats sit at just 9-12 on the season and 2-5 in conference play. On Thursday, Kentucky plays a more than formidable Mississippi State team that just upset No. 9 LSU 77-73 in The Hump. If Kentucky has any shot of knocking off the Bulldogs and saving the season potentially, then they’ll need to see the Ajae Petty of old.