UK women’s basketball on bad road

University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart and Coach Matthew Mitchell want people to believe that the problems in the women’s basketball program are only speed bumps.

I think the program’s road has a sinkhole as large as the one at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.

Since last fall, seven players have left the program, a McDonald’s All-American signee for the class of 2016 was granted a release from her letter of intent, and the two best players committed for the class of 2017 have de-committed and reopened their recruitment. All three assistant coaches are no longer with the program. That position is a revolving door — eight assistants have left in the past three years.

I have sympathy for the young women because they are uprooted from their original plans and have to transfer to another university and sit out a year before becoming eligible to play again.

Mitchell has the gall to mention the demands of his own family and the unique challenge when you have young children. People in all walks of life face those demands and don’t use them as excuses. Many of those people also have financial problems that are not shared by the coach.

The hope of many people is that no really serious problems pop up later. UK’s president should get an outside source to investigate the program.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 7:36 PM with the headline "UK women’s basketball on bad road."