For younger Kentucky fans, it might seem strange: Rick Pitino’s first two seasons in Lexington included a miracle .500 year and then a 22–6 squad that finished No. 9 in the AP poll… yet neither made the NCAA Tournament. The reason? They weren’t allowed to.
Kentucky was still digging out from one of the ugliest scandals in program history, a mess left behind by Eddie Sutton’s tenure. In May 1989, just weeks before Pitino arrived, the NCAA dropped a hammer for a laundry list of issues: recruiting violations, academic fraud, and lack of institutional control, all while Kentucky was already on probation from a prior case.