ST. LOUIS — As it turned out, a 2025-26 Kentucky men’s basketball season that featured more dramatic ups and downs than “The Beast” ended in the only manner it could have:

With one more wild roller coaster ride.

Coach Mark Pope’s Cats began their NCAA Tournament Midwest Region round of 32 game against Iowa State scalding hot.

The Cats hit 8 of their first 12 shots, 4 of their initial 6 3-pointers, and seized a 20-9 lead over the favored Cyclones on a Mo Dioubate follow dunk with 11:45 left in the first half.

From there, the UK season essentially fell off The Gateway Arch.

Showing why they earned a No. 2 seed, Coach T.J. Otzelberger’s Cyclones used their havoc-creating pressure defense to harass Kentucky into a whopping 20 turnovers. Outscoring UK 25-12 in points off of turnovers, Iowa State earned its way to next week’s Sweet 16 with an 82-63 thrashing of Kentucky before 16,348 fans at the Enterprise Center.

While Iowa State (29-7) will face either Virginia or Tennessee next week in Chicago, the Kentucky season ended with a so-so 22-14 mark.

Even without injured star Joshua Jefferson, it turned out that Iowa State with its maniacal defensive pressure was a horrible matchup for a UK team that played almost all this season without a “true” point guard.

“I thought Iowa State was terrific,” Pope said afterward. “They exert a ton of pressure. They’re very disruptive and, certainly, they were disruptive with us.”

Kentucky’s loss in the round of 32 means the Cats have missed the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the past six years. UK has not played in an NCAA Tournament region final since 2019. The Cats’ Final Four drought is now 11 years. It has been 14 seasons since Kentucky won an NCAA championship.

With two seasons of the Pope coaching era now in the books, it seems an appropriate time to evaluate where the Kentucky program is and where it should be.

In analyzing Kentucky’s 2025-26, two things can be true.

The roster that UK committed some $22 million in NIL funding to build was not well constructed. It lacked both sufficient outside shooting and the all-around offensive skill to play the “modern, five-out” offensive approach expected from a Pope-led team.

Yet it is also true that the injuries that sidelined expected starting point guard Jaland Lowe and projected starting center Jayden Quaintance for much of the season — as well as wing shooter Kam Williams for much of league play — meant we never really saw UK’s $22 million roster.

“I think we were disappointed that we never got to run with the roster we thought we had,” Pope said. “... We didn’t get to play the way that we planned to. ... We didn’t get to do anything the way we had planned or constructed just because of health situations.”

Through two seasons, Pope stands 46-26 as UK head man. For a school that won only one SEC Tournament game between 2021 and 2024, Pope has three such victories.

In a basketball program that won one NCAA Tournament contest from 2021 through 2024, Pope has three March Madness wins in two years.

Alas, improving over the lackluster conclusion to the previous coaching regime is not the assignment Pope accepted. As the former UK center prepares to enter year three as head coach at his alma mater, the job next season needs to be clear:

It is to get Kentucky back to being “Kentucky.”

That doesn’t mean UK has to win the NCAA championship in 2027. It doesn’t mean the Cats have to make the Final Four. It does not even mean Kentucky has to win the SEC regular season championship for the first time since 2020 or the SEC Tournament title for the first time since 2018.

It does mean Pope needs to put a team on the court that is a viable contender for such things.

A fan base that is impatient after what has been, by Kentucky’s regal historical standards, six straight years of relative mediocrity wants to see action.

Pope could start by hiring a general manager with strong ties to the agents who play such a large role in recruiting in the new college sports era.

In an era of mass player mobility, teams that can retain veteran cores are at a substantial advantage. Kentucky needs to bring back the most promising players on its current roster.

“Retention is a big part of this, and we have good young players,” Pope said. “You think about (Kentucky was) starting a first-year center (Malachi Moreno), a first-year power forward (Andrija Jelavic) and a sophomore two-guard (Collin Chandler) ... and those guys have gained some great experience and they’re going to get better and better and better.”

Even if Kentucky brings everybody back from the 2025-26 roster than can come back, the Cats will need help from the transfer portal. Start with another swing at a starting point guard. Add a dynamic wing to replace graduating senior star Otega Oweh.

In two seasons as Kentucky coach, Pope has put together a portal class that meshed seamlessly (year one) and one that left a lot of people scratching their heads (year two).

Going into what will be crucial year three for him as UK coach, Mark Pope has no choice but to “get the portal right.”

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