It’s easy to focus on the big picture here: Kentucky basketball’s run of postseason woes, the lack of Final Fours and heartbreaking losses. The NCAA Tournament is a single-elimination monster that gives and takes, and unfortunately, it’s taken a hell of a lot from the Wildcats in recent years. This one? Phew. A doozy.
But those conversations can and will be had later. Reactionary takes aren’t productive in the grand scheme of things, especially given the ups and downs of this season and how things closed out. The expectations going into the season as a top-five team with title dreams, hitting rock bottom and clawing back, only to have inconsistent play keep the plane from taking off the runway and soaring to the final destination as planned?