This Kentucky Basketball season has been a roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, it ended on a low that is almost as dramatic as Friday’s high.

Not even Otega Oweh’s miracle shot vs. Santa Clara can make up for today’s embarrassing loss to Iowa State. It is Kentucky’s worst defeat in the NCAA Tournament since 1972, a 19-point loss to Florida State and Adolph Rupp’s last game. This won’t be Mark Pope’s final game as Kentucky’s head coach, but it sets up a pivotal offseason and a make-or-break third year.

The 82-63 loss to Iowa State showcased a little bit of everything that went wrong this season. Kentucky got off to a great start, leading Iowa State by 11 at the 11:30 mark. That’s when Denzel Aberdeen checked out, and Jasper Johnson checked in. Iowa State went on a 9-0 run, prompting Mark Pope to call a timeout. Another hot start squandered by substitutions.

When Kentucky has played well this season, it’s usually because Otega Oweh, Denzel Aberdeen, and Collin Chandler have all been dialed in. Aberdeen (20) and Oweh (18) were the only Kentucky players in double figures, combining for over half of the Cats’ points. Chandler finished with just six points, two threes he hit in the first five minutes of the game. If the three-headed GOAT isn’t GOATing — and an unexpected hero doesn’t show up — it’s really hard for this team to win.

Iowa State outscored Kentucky 51-33 in the second half and by 30 if you go back to when the Cats led 20-9 in the first half. The Cyclones forced 20 turnovers, the most for the Cats since 1993. Watching TJ Otzelberger’s team decimate Kentucky in the second half felt like watching Michigan State, Gonzaga, Alabama, and Vanderbilt do the same. You could feel the goodwill from Oweh’s shot on Friday evaporate with each passing second. It became excruciatingly hard to watch, which is not the first time this year we’ve said that this year. For better or worse, it will be the last.

Afterward, Mark Pope insisted that injuries were to blame for this team never reaching its potential. He said there was just one time this season in which this team looked like he thought it would, in the second half vs. St. John’s, when both Jayden Quaintance and Jaland Lowe were on the floor. It was one of just three games this team has played at full health. While injuries certainly played a big part this season, this roster was poorly constructed from the jump with pieces that never really fit Pope’s system.

After his first season at Kentucky, Pope overcorrected at the expense of shooting. That was glaring in the second half vs. Iowa State, when Kentucky couldn’t make shots or get stops. The Cyclones probably operated with a third of the NIL budget that Mark Pope did, and ran the Cats off the floor. TJ Otzelberger’s squad looked a lot like what we hoped Pope’s would this season, which was just salt in the wound.

With that in mind, Pope embarks on the most critical offseason of his career. What adjustments will he make? In his postgame press conference, he said he will start with retention, singling out a “first-year center and a first-year power forward and a sophomore two guard.” So, Malachi Moreno, Andrija Jelavic, Collin Chandler, and/or Kam Williams. From there, he must swing big. Kentucky still doesn’t have a 2026 commit. Tyran Stokes is still out there, a wildcard with a hefty price tag. That’s a gamble Pope needs to take. In the portal, he needs to find proven players that fit his system. He once again preached the importance of finding players who want to be at Kentucky because it’s Kentucky; at this rate, I’m not sure he has that luxury.

The next few months will make or break Pope’s tenure at Kentucky. Even if Otega Oweh’s shot reminded us of what is possible in March, no one was surprised to see the run end here. There were only a few tears in the locker room; most players were somber, seemingly resigned to this season’s fate. That’s a 180 from last season, when most of the locker room was sobbing, and Lamont Butler ended the press conference by telling everyone how honored he was to be part of Mark Pope’s first team at Kentucky.

Even more telling to me was the crowd. Iowa State fans filled at least half of the arena, while Kentucky fans filled just one section. They got loud when the Cats got off to a hot start, but whenever I glanced over during the second half, they hardly seemed surprised by how it was unfolding. We’ve seen it too many times before this season.

Hopefully, enough changes are made so next year isn’t a repeat performance.