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WCS, Dan Issel sound off on Kentucky: '(Championships) ain't the fuel anymore'

Jack PIlgrimby: Jack Pilgrim5 hours ago

For all of the talk about understanding the assignment and hunger for banner No. 9, an all-time Kentucky Wildcat with two Final Fours while being named a consensus First-Team All-American doesn’t believe that messaging works for today’s era of professional student-athletes — at least the ones currently in Lexington. Willie Cauley-Stein took to social media to share his thoughts on these Wildcats’ struggles after starting the season 5-4 without a single win of substance through six weeks.

His take? They’ll be fine at the end of the day, but it won’t be their passion for championships. And the earlier Mark Pope understands and embraces that, the quicker the turnaround can take place.

In Cauley-Stein’s eyes, it’s about finding what makes them tick and having pride for the community in which they represent.

“S*** (it’s) tough to be hungry when you got players showing up in (Mercedes-Benzes) and designer .. they will be aight (though),” Cauley-Stein wrote. “It’s a new era of navigating professional student athletes.. the best coaches now will be the ones that can build teams by putting pride back in the players for the COMMUNITY.”

If money is the driving factor, reward them with performance-based incentives now legal through rev-share — not pay-for-play with traditional NIL, which remains illegal. And not scoring incentives, but rather rewards for hustle and effort, things that contribute to winning basketball games.

Cauley-Stein doesn’t think we’d see any criticisms about the team’s heart then. At the end of the day, though, it’s about finding things that matter to kids in 2025-26 and beyond. In his opinion, that’s not a general love for the game and pursuit of championships — it’s more.

“Imagine if they gave bonuses for hustle plays like steals, blocks, rebounds, assists… take points off the charts and give that game bonus to winning plays and I bet there will be no problem of lack of effort,” he wrote. “it’s clear that trying to win ships ain’t the fuel anymore.”

Cauley-Stein isn’t the first all-time Wildcat to share their thoughts on this Kentucky team and its ongoing struggles. DeMarcus Cousins questioned their heart after getting destroyed in Nashville, losing by 35 points to Gonzaga.

“Can’t lie…this (UK) team has no heart!” Cousins tweeted. “This is hard to watch (shake my head).”

Pope agreed with the First-Team All-SEC member and four-time NBA All-Star.

“I have no issue with what he said, in the sense of — like, if you’re watching that game, you feel like, starting with the coach, this product is completely unacceptable. Unacceptable. I think that, as a former player here, I’m pissed at the coach too. That’s just all deserved. There’s nothing inappropriate about what he said at all.”

Dan Issel continues his streak of Kentucky criticism

How about the program’s all-time leading scorer? The Horse continues to share his takes on these Wildcats, too — and they’re not pretty.

Issel first ripped Kentucky after the Michigan State loss, calling this group “selfish” with “no effort” while being “terribly outrebounded on the boards” and not “helping each other defensively.”

I told him that it looked like to me, that Mark went down to the New York Athletic Club a half-hour before tip-off, got 10 guys who had never played together before, and put Kentucky uniforms on them,” he said at the time. “There was not one aspect of that — not one — game that would lead me to believe they’re going to be a decent team this year.”

Then came his next run of criticism following the Gonzaga loss.

“This is going to be awful. I looked at the schedule, we play three ranked teams: Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. We play them six times. Man, on top of that, we play at Arkansas — you think Cal will be ready for this team? — at Auburn and at Alabama. This could be the worst season of Kentucky basketball since the Unforgettables if we don’t get this straightened out.

“There is an Andy Griffith episode where the father is letting the son get away with murder and Andy tells him, ‘We’ve got an old-fashioned woodshed out back if you’d like to use it.’ It’s time to take this team to the woodshed.”

Other than that, things are just fine in Lexington.

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2025-12-09