Before basketball, a guilty confession. Despite being on the edge of Generation X and millenial, my own peculiar musical tastes tended toward my parents’ days. I was that guy who played the oldies station in his beater station wagon on his way to baseball practice. And my favorite — then and now — was Bob Dylan. Yes, cue the jokes. He can’t sing. He talk-whines all his songs. Tell the one about the hippies who ran out of drugs at the Dylan show and then went, “Man, this music sucks.” Whatever. Bob’s my dude.

Dylan’s most prominent song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” is famous for its chorus. “How does it feeeeeel?” 1965 Bob Dylan asks an unseen audience. As it turns out, he could have been talking to Kentucky’s Big Blue Nation nearly 60 years later.

John Calipari is (somehow) back.

How does it feeeeeeeel?

For many Kentucky fans, not so great, especially after watching another different SEC team (Alabama) reach the Final Four.

How on Earth did the situation get here? Yes, there was some reluctance to Calipari in 2009 when he was hired. That said, there wasn’t much reluctance, thanks to 2 seasons under Billy Gillispie. And his performance was phenomenal. Calipari brought in the best players in the country, fielded a team with instant credibility, and had UK “back” almost before anybody realized it could be done.

The next few years felt like a whirlwind. A surprising Final Four run in 2011. The NCAA title in 2012 — still the most recent. After a down season, a surprise run to the title game in 2014. And an unbeaten team heading into the 2015 Final Four that might be the best college basketball team in my 43 years on this planet.

Whatever deals Calipari had made with whatever entities gave him his supernatural powers in recruiting and player development, the cosmic check seemed to come due at that 2015 Final Four. Kentucky lost and dropped the mojo of the past 6 years in a New York minute.

It probably didn’t help that Duke won the national title 2 days later. Coach K could one-and-done too, and it surprisingly was much less objectionable to talking heads everywhere when Duke pulled the trick than Kentucky’s 2012 run. And then K signed Zion, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish a couple of years later. Bill Self started winning titles. Roy Williams nabbed another title.

And the losses piled up. No, not at all once. There was an Elite Eight appearance in 2017 and another in 2019. Kentucky won the SEC Tournament in 2016, 2017 and 2018. They won the league regular-season title in 2016 and 2017 and again in 2020 before COVID-19 wiped out the postseason.

But gradually, the excellence slowed to something closer to a trickle. Calipari still produced a first-round NBA Draft pick or two per team. The Cats would have an impressive win or two — like 2022, when Kentucky beat both of the teams that met in the NCAA title game in the regular season (Kansas and UNC), but fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

And the angst against Calipari began to pile up. Always adept at a press conference side-shuffle any politician would envy, he became more abrupt. He missed media appearances and sent assistant coaches to fill in for him. When he did talk, he’d circumlocute around anything anyone wanted to hear. For a time, he became enamored with claiming that he could not provide injury updates on any of his players because he hadn’t seen them.

The recruiting, if not superhuman, was still good. But having crafted a culture where one-and-done was expected, Calipari found that few players wanted to field the public insult of staying for a second year, much less a third. On the court, Kentucky’s offense bogged down. The Wildcats struggled in close games, late in games, and in any situation. And the losses happened.

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Kentucky is 1-4 in its past 5 NCAA Tournament games. Kentucky is 1-5 in its last six SEC Tournament games. The Wildcats aren’t winning league titles, they aren’t reaching the second week of the NCAA Tournament, and they’re making one of the most loyal fan bases in college basketball miserable.

In the immediate aftermath of a second loss to a No. 14 or higher seed in 3 seasons, many were sure Calipari would be gone. But no, he was out doing media appearances with Mitch Barnhart. Talking about getting an older team, a tougher team, and still bringing in the next class of brilliant freshmen.

Meanwhile, Alabama and Tennessee were marching toward the Elite 8.

How does it feel, BBN?

If social media and friend circles are any indication, the answer is basically: “Not so good.”

It’s hard to imagine the same recipe that has failed so spectacularly for Calipari suddenly yielding March success next season or beyond. Kentucky’s returning players are mostly expected to go pro or transfer. Kentucky’s best shot at returning a top-level player has to be Reed Sheppard, the actual spawn of two Kentucky stars who fell into Calipari’s lap as the national Freshman of the Year. Calipari reciprocated by not starting Sheppard, and when asked about him in press conferences, immediately pivoting to discuss much less productive players.

Great freshman? Heard it before. Getting older? Senior transfers Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell were older. Getting tougher? Still waiting.

The decision to retain Calipari felt a lot like desperation forced a couple with marital troubles to grin and bear it and put in another year. For the kids. But what happens in most of those situations? The Band-aid will still get ripped off, and another year is just longer to delay the pain of what’s inevitable.

Mostly, Kentucky fans are going to start feeling like they stumbled west into Missouri. Consider BBN in “Show me” mode. Better game adjustment? Let’s see it. More dialed in assistant coaches providing better help? We’ll see. A mature and mentally tough team that’s ready for March? Wake everybody up when it actually happens.

Until something actually does change, Big Blue Nation knows too well how it feels. It feels like greatness giving way to mediocrity. It feels like high expectations being settled to avoid an eight-figure buyout. It feels like the kind of compromise where nobody wins.