Vicky Graff Photo
Alabama might have the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense but it was no match for Kentucky as the Cats led by 37 points in the second half and coasted to a 117-95 win.
It was the most points UK had ever scored against Alabama and the most against an Associated Press Top 25 team since getting 113 points against Notre Dame in 1974. It was also the most against an SEC foe since UK had 120 points against Vanderbilt in 1996 and the most against a SEC opponent in Rupp Arena since getting 127 points against LSU in 1995.
Kentucky shot 63 percent from the field (41 of 65), its second-best mark of the season and ninth-highest all-time in the John Calipari era. Kentucky came into the game leading the nation in 3-point shooting at 40.5 percent but did better than that hitting 54.2 percent (13 of 24).
Alabama coach Nate Oats didn’t pull punches about the beatdown his SEC-leading team took.
“Kentucky was ready to play tonight, we weren’t. Cal and his guys were ready to go. I didn’t. They looked great, we looked awful. Our defensive intensity was not there, and I told our guys after the game we’ve had question marks about our defense all year. Those question marks are completely erased. Everybody knows we don’t really guard at this point,” Oats said.
Pay attention to this part because I am guessing it hurt Oats to have to admit that and probably had Calipari smiling when he heard it.
“Cal’s done a really good job kind of fixing the shooting, the issues he’s had in the past. You know, he recruited some shooters. They got some shooters and he had some other guys today, you know, Justin Edwards goes for four (3-pointers) and he hadn’t been shooting it all that great.
“But we let Dillingham, Shepherd, and Reeves all shoot over 50 percent too. He’s done a good job getting his roster fixed to where they’ve got good shooting. He spaced the floor out. Obviously, they’re a better offense, but no, if the defense isn’t fixable we’re not going to be able to win big games.”
Oats didn’t pull a Rick Pitino and berate his team but he certainly pointed out the obvious.
“Thought our effort stunk and you know part of the issue was we turned it over and they scored 29 points off our 16 turnovers. You can’t turn the ball over that much. We need to do a better job tagging them and taking care of the ball, but we had given up 16 points in transition not including the points off turnovers,” Oats said.
“Take the 29 points off turnovers, 16 other points in transitional so you’re at 45 points before you even give your half-court defense a chance to get a stop
“There’s no perfect offense. We gave up 1.46 (points per possession) tonight. The best offense in the country. I don’t know if there’s many games in the country where somebody scored better than 1.46. So, you know Kentucky’s a good offensive team and they’re top 19 coming into the game.”
4 Responses
This was a great win and I enjoyed watching it. This team has talent, it just doesn’t have a coach. Shooting 63% from the field, 54% from 3, 85% on free throws…a once in a season performance. Edwards and Z having career games…good for them. The only team that has played worse defense than us is Alabama. Alabama was a soft team, even with the seniors they have. Miss State, Arkansas, and Tennessee won’t be so nice. Did we play that good or did Bama play that bad? We will find out soon.
Come tourney time there will be 63 teams we can beat AND 63 teams that can beat us. I’d have to go with Houston – their defense will take them a long way – it’s frigging brutal.
Could be a fun tourney Paul
Mrs Tina put it best the other day: this Is a true roller-coaster of a season for KY BBALL–the highs are incredibly high and the lows are the lowest. Unfortunately, that’s the territory with CAL. and after wins like AUB and BAMA,u want to buy in again, but then they make u regret it later when they’re losing 3 straight in Rupp or losing to SCAR, TX A&M, and LSU. the highs of this team could put them in the Final 4–the lows could mean first or second round loss—u just never know from game to game. It’s like they win the ones they shouldn’t and lose the ones they shouldn’t. In the end, the great equalizer is CAL. I would love to see what could be done with this team with somebody like a Pitino in his prime, or a Scott Drew, or any other young up-and-comer in the game today–somebody not coaching with individual self-serving agendas, and coaching to get his players in the NBA draft. All these CAL lovers who believe after wins like these that he all of a sudden cares about the success of KY BBALL are truly naive. His differences In behaviors based off of our results should reveal exactly his character to ppl: after big wins, he’s telling everybody about themselves and how wrong they are, and dogging ppl for dogging him or the team even though "he doesnt listen to the noise or the clutter"—funny how it was revealed after the AUB game that they had been pulling up "noise and clutter" on social media and specifically showing all of it to the players so they could see what people were saying about them. Which I totally disagree with–why should they care Abt what ppl r saying Abt them, and why fill the kids’ heads with that? That’s not fair to them, and only puts more unnecessary pressure on them. Does anybody really believe those players care about what people say about them anyway? But regardless–how bout COACH your bball team? Maybe that’s why this team is so far behind defensively–CAL too busy trying to control the narrative and keep all the spotlight on himself, instead of just focusing on practice and getting his players better. Classic narcissist. Congrats to the team on a great win and a great performance. We can only hope for more consistency going forward, and for the team to realize its huge ceiling and potential more often that not, but I’m not going to hold my breath. It’s game by game with this team. And honestly, what seed they get is going to determine more than anything how far they end up going, and after that, it will be who they will match up with after said seed, as far as playing style and coaching style/philosophy—seed and matchups will be the two biggest factors in where this team will finish.