The Wildcats, coached by Matthew Mitchell, are a member of the Southeastern Conference, and played their home games on campus at Memorial Coliseum—unlike UK's famous men's program, which played off-campus at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington.

The Wildcats returned four starters, including 2012 SEC Player of the Year A'dia Mathies and SEC Freshman of the Year Bria Goss, from a team that finished 28–7 and won their second regular-season Southeastern Conference title in school history, their first since 1981–82.

Jennifer O'Neil also returned after sitting out the 2011–12 season with a knee injury, and Kentucky added DeNesha Stallworth (transfer from California), Jelleah Sidney (transfer from Chipola Junior College), and Janee Thompson (McDonald's All-American from Whitney Young High School).

[2] The SEC coaches also picked Kentucky as the preseason favorite to win the 2012–13 conference title and named A'dia Mathies preseason player of the year.

[3] Sources: From the official UK women's basketball site Archived 2013-06-01 at the Wayback Machine: