Kentucky’s Hit Rough Waters

Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope reacts during a game against the Auburn Tigers at Neville Arena in Auburn, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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).

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.

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.