{"id":647660,"date":"2026-03-08T19:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/647660\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:59:24","slug":"dick-vitale-slams-kentuckys-22-million-roster-moral-victories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/647660\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Vitale slams Kentucky&#8217;s $22 million roster, moral victories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN college basketball broadcasting legend Dick Vitale sounded off about the University of Kentucky basketball program during Saturday\u2019s game against Florida at Rupp Arena.<\/p>\n<p>No. 4 Florida won the game 84-77, but it took just over 12 game minutes for Vitale to voice his frustration about Kentucky and its roster construction under head coach Mark Pope with $22 million in NIL spending.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dick Vitale: \u201cI\u2019ve done several now Kentucky games\u2026 $22 million this team [reportedly has spent] in terms of the NIL for their players. I think in $22 million, they could have put together a better roster than they did. I really do.\u201d \ud83c\udfc0\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n<p>(h\/t: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanielHagerOn3?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@DanielHagerOn3<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xZ7iOBysz8\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/xZ7iOBysz8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/awfulannouncing\/status\/2030437782154510395?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to say this right here,\u201d Vitale explained to Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes on the ESPN broadcast. \u201cI\u2019ve done several now Kentucky games. Win or lose, $22 million this team [reportedly has spent] in terms of the NIL for their players. I think in $22 million, they could have put together a better roster than they did. I really do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With 1:46 remaining in the second half, Vitale made it clear that moral victories are unacceptable for Kentucky, an eight-time national champion.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dick Vitale: \u201cMoral victories don\u2019t count at this level of basketball\u2026 The bottom line is you\u2019re Kentucky. You\u2019re Kentucky\u2026 There are no moral victories. Come on. I don\u2019t want to hear that.\u201d \ud83c\udfc0\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bNhfWTzcjk\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/bNhfWTzcjk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zUFSqlotXP\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/zUFSqlotXP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/awfulannouncing\/status\/2030493796103012805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll tell you one thing,\u201d Vitale said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to walk out of here thinking you got a moral victory. Moral victories don\u2019t count at this level of basketball. And you hear some of the people, \u2018We played them close. We played them tough.\u2019 The bottom line is you\u2019re Kentucky. You\u2019re Kentucky. And you\u2019ve got to leave here with a win, especially at home. There are no moral victories. Come on. I don\u2019t want to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kentucky is 19-12 on the season and 10-8 in SEC play, with losses in five of its last seven games. Entering Saturday, the Wildcats came in at No. 27 on the NET rankings, and they currently slot in at No. 27 on Ken Pomeroy\u2019s efficiency ratings. Pope led Kentucky to the Sweet 16 last year in his first season as the school\u2019s head coach after holding the same position at BYU.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN college basketball broadcasting legend Dick Vitale sounded off about the University of Kentucky basketball program during Saturday\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,9625,950,82727,21622,3075,6656,1116],"class_list":["post-647660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-dick-vitale","tag-florida-gators","tag-jimmy-dykes","tag-karl-ravech","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-mark-pope","tag-sec"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116195332772833413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}