Dan Issel offers advice to fix a ‘really hard to watch’ Kentucky basketball team
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Dan Issel urges Mark Pope to shorten rotations and bench unproductive players.
- Issel blames player effort, execution and shot selection for early-season collapse.
- Issel preserves faith in NCAA run but warns roster construction and NIL choices matter.
With a weekend to think over his beloved team’s latest subpar performance, one of the greatest Wildcats in Kentucky basketball history was reminded of an old episode of “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Dan Issel, in an appearance on ESPN 680’s “Rabaut & Co.” show Monday, referenced an episode in which Griffith’s character — the sheriff of small-town Mayberry, North Carolina — is met with the challenge of a father who has let his son get away with everything before finally realizing he’s in need of a little discipline.
Issel recalled Griffith’s wise sheriff telling the dad that there’s “an old-fashioned woodshed out back” if he’d like to use it.
“It’s time to take this team to the woodshed!” the UK great said to finish off that thought.
Issel had many other thoughts on the state of this Kentucky basketball team, which has a 5-4 record going into a game against North Carolina Central on Tuesday night, all four of those losses coming against the only four quality teams the Cats have played.
And the last one was the worst: a 94-59 shellacking against Gonzaga, a game in which the Wildcats were booed off the court by a pro-UK crowd in Nashville and three days later dropped out of The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since Mark Pope took over as the team’s head coach.
“This team just doesn’t play together,” Issel said to start his segment on the show, which he used to co-host alongside current host Louie Rabaut. “They don’t help one another. They don’t try to get somebody else a good shot. They don’t help on defense. They don’t rebound. And I don’t know what the problem is. I know Mark says after the game, ‘It’s on me.’ You know, at some point, the guys got to make a shot. A guy’s got to help on defense. A guy’s got to dive after a loose ball.
“I guess you start with the effort. And it looks like they don’t have much interest in playing basketball. And it’s really hard to watch.”
That about sums up the feelings of the UK fan base at this point.
The Cats were No. 9 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 — underrated, said many of those fans when that poll came out — and beat No. 1-ranked Purdue in their exhibition opener, a game that didn’t count for the record books but riled up Big Blue Nation even further.
It’s been pretty much downhill from there. UK was 32nd in the voting for this week’s AP poll and has now lost to Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga to start the season. The Cats weren’t competitive against Michigan State or Gonzaga and fell behind by 20 points before rallying to within four at U of L. The loss to North Carolina came inside Rupp Arena.
Some fans have been putting most of the blame on Pope, who led an injury riddled team to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in his first year at the helm, tying an NCAA record with eight victories over AP top-15 teams with a roster built from scratch as soon as he got the job.
“I mean, he didn’t forget how to coach over the summer. It’s not that,” Issel said. “He understands where he is. He knows that this is unacceptable. He knows that when you’re the coach of the University of Kentucky basketball (team), you have to do better than this. He’s well aware of that. And he’s well aware that winning a championship is the only thing that’s going to appease the fans.”
Issel said fans were overacting “a little” — quickly changing that to “a lot” — if they’re comparing Pope to former UK coach Billy Gillispie or ex-Louisville coach Kenny Payne, who each lasted only two seasons in those jobs. He used the words “ridiculous” and “ludicrous” to describe the thought of getting rid of Pope after this season, which some on social media have advocated.
“If you’re blaming Mark Pope for this, I think you’re blaming the wrong guy,” Issel said.
Kentucky basketball players need to do better
Most of the blame belongs on the players, said one of the greatest to ever play at Kentucky. And Issel thinks fewer of the current Cats should be playing as a result.
Issel, who is UK’s all-time leader in points and rebounds and has also been the head coach and general manager of the Denver Nuggets, said he once had a Hall of Fame coach tell him: “If you try to make everybody happy, you’re not going to make anybody happy.”
He called for Pope to shorten his rotations.
“He’s playing too many guys that are doing absolutely nothing,” Issel said.
He also brought the stats to back that up, correctly pointing out that — while acknowledging that UK has had injuries to prominent players and five blowout victories with plenty of garbage time — a total of 11 Wildcats are averaging at least 15 minutes per game.
“Especially in this day of NIL, the only weapon a coach has is playing time,” Issel said. “And I think Mark needs to find seven or eight guys that are going to play hard, that are going to play together. And if you’re not, sit them on the bench.
“As a coach, you can’t be a friend to these players. You’ve got to be the mentor. You’ve got to give the direction. You’ve got to play the guys that are helping you win. And I think there’s too many guys on the floor right now that their shot selection is awful. They don’t guard anybody. They don’t dive after loose balls. And those guys just have to sit down, as far I’m concerned.”
Issel did put some blame for the current situation on Pope, who constructed this roster — using a treasure chest of NIL funds to do so — and is now in charge of the playing time. But most of it was reserved for the players who have simply not shown up in the big games so far.
Another UK basketball great, DeMarcus Cousins, got attention for a social media post during the loss to Gonzaga saying the current Cats had “no heart” and were difficult to watch. Pope said he had no problem with Cousins’ post after that game, though he tried to take the blame for the team’s poor results. Issel also had no complaints with Cousins’ assessment.
“He didn’t blame Mark. I’m sure Mark is not coaching this team (to) go 1 for 13 from the 3-point line, and the only one that makes a 3-pointer is the center. Mark’s not doing that,” he said, a reference to Brandon Garrison making the team’s only 3-pointer in a 67-64 loss to UNC last week.
“If you want to blame (Pope) for something, it was that he put a team together that, so far, hasn’t proved that any of them can play together. I don’t know that you can blame him for coaching. I mean, he coached the same way last year and had a pretty darn good year. So it’s not his coaching. And Cousins didn’t go after Mark. He didn’t go after the coaching staff. He went after the players. And at some point, they are the ones who have to step up and take the responsibility for playing so darn bad.”
Wherever the fault lies, it’s obvious that something has to change. The players know that, too.
“It’s not surprising, really,” senior guard Denzel Aberdeen said Monday morning of the boos that were heard during the Gonzaga game in Nashville. “It’s quite understandable. People pay money to come see us. They support us each and every game, whether it’s home or away. That’s some people’s vacation — just coming to see us play — which is amazing that they come. Very thankful for our fans. So it’s quite understandable.
“We know we’re not playing the way we should be playing, and we’re gonna change it moving forward.”
Kentucky’s presumptive starting point guard, Jaland Lowe, made his return from a shoulder injury Friday night and should help the team once he gets back up to speed. UK is still playing without starting forward Mouhamed Dioubate, who missed the losses to North Carolina and Gonzaga with an ankle injury but should be back soon.
The Cats are also still waiting on 6-foot-10 forward Jayden Quaintance, a projected NBA lottery pick who is recovering from a torn ACL but could make his UK debut in a matter of weeks.
Rabaut asked Issel on Monday if it was more likely that the Cats would get it together and make a run to the Sweet 16 or miss the NCAA Tournament altogether.
“I still have faith,” Issel said, implying a March Madness run was still the more likely of the two scenarios. “I mean, he’s gotta make some changes. You cannot keep going the way you’re going and have guys — and I don’t want to mention any names — that are on the floor for 15 minutes who can’t score and can’t guard anybody. That’s a bad combination.
“I don’t care what the promises were. I don’t care what the NIL package is. If you’ve got guys like that, you gotta sit their butts on the bench. And I still have faith that Mark will do that.”
