Kentucky’s Hit Rough Waters – Yahoo Sports

Did you see what former Kentucky great Dan Issel said the other day?

In a nutshell, he said it was harder for Kentucky to win when everyone else could pay players, too.

It was hilarious, brutally honest, and also completely lines up with what former Indiana player and coach Dan Dakich said about Wildcat basketball the other day (he predicted some time ago that NIL would make Kentucky irrelevant for exactly the same reason).

Advertisement

Adolph Rupp really established Kentucky’s program. He coached there from 1930-1972, and built the tradition and expectations of and for Kentucky basketball.

The program has remained relevant until quite recently, nearly a 100-year run, and even today, UK is typically very dangerous.

But there’s no question the talent has slowed down, and there’s no question that Big Blue Nation is somewhere curiously between horrified, furious, and resigned.

This article from ASeaofBlue.com talks about that in a quieter way than we would have expected.

It frames the article around John Rothstein’s recent argument that there are only two Blue Bloods left in college basketball: Duke and UConn.

Advertisement

Our argument would be this: Duke and UConn got quite lucky in their hires.

Well, it’s not luck exactly. Mike Krzyzewski and Jon Scheyer planned the transition meticulously, and Duke remains potent. As for UConn, they made a great hire in Dan Hurley, then at Rhode Island. They didn’t go after a flashy name; they identified the best coach they could possibly get, and got him. This is much like what Iowa did last season, incidentally and now Ben McCollum has a six-year extension.

Here’s what we think will happen at Kentucky.

Coach Mark Pope will be under immense pressure this season. He tried to spend big and get a big roster last time, and that didn’t work. He’s gathered less highly regarded talent this year, and it’s entirely possible that might work better.

Advertisement

It’s just that he still might not keep his job.

You may remember that Kentucky…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kentucky-hit-rough-waters-135023783.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-05-13 13:50:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.