A lot of numbers looked good for Kentucky against Alabama.
— The Cats had seven players with at least one steal, including Travis Perry with four, and finished the game with 13 thefts.
— Kentucky had 12 offensive rebounds and outscored Alabama 15-9 on second-chance points.
— Kentucky jumped in front 20-9 to open the game.
— Kentucky held Grant Nelson, who dominated UK in an earlier win, to five points.
Yet Alabama still won 96-83 and it was not hard for UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens to explain why during or after the game.
“The difference in the game was points off turnovers because Bama goes as their transition game goes,” said Givens. “With the way they shoot in and the freedom they have to shoot, you can never get caught up (getting back on defense) when you turn it over.
“Alabama is so good in transition and will cash in when you have live ball turnovers and they did. Bad shots can also be like a turnover feeding that transition game but I didn’t think Kentucky had too many of those.”
Kentucky had 13 turnovers — two less than Alabama. However, Alabama outscored UK 24-11 on points off turnovers and 23-6 on fast break points because many of those turnovers turned into fast breaks.
“Kentucky did enough things right to win this game. Any time you get 13 steals that is a huge job defensively but they just could not cash them in (for points),” Givens said.
Point guard Travis Perry had a career-high 12 points despite going 1-for-7 from 3-point range. He only had one assist in 28 minutes but he did not make a turnover.
“Protecting the ball was a big point of emphasis,” Perry said. “You are going to make mistakes but we have to make mistakes our way. In both halves, they swung momentum off our turnovers and long rebounds off missed shots when they would get buckets. Those are things we have to control better.”
Kentucky had 30 points in the first 10 1/2 minutes and led 30-18 but managed only 10 points in the final 9 1/2 minutes of the first half as Alabama went on a 24-4 run to take control of the game.
“We had some possessions we would like to have had back,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “Transition defense was a problem. We are still growing with these new rotations and some newness in that environment.”
Alabama could not put the Cats away in the second half even though Otega Oweh had his first game at UK without scoring in double digits as he went 1-for-9 from the field and finished with just two points before fouling out with over six minutes to play. Kentucky was still down only 70-66 with 8:18 to play before the Crimson Tide pulled away.
Kentucky got 11 points early from Koby Brea and he finished with 20 points on 7-for-17 shooting, including 4-for-10 from 3. Andrew Carr had 10 early points and finished with 17 points 6-for-9 shooting. “I thought he (Carr) was really aggressive and playing hard,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said.
Once again Amari Williams was terrific. He had 17 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field and 7-for-10 at the foul line (he drew nine fouls). He also had another double-double with 11 rebounds and added six assists, one block, and one steal in 27 minutes. He did have four turnovers, including two in transition.
“He was good at picking and choosing his moments (to shoot). He has been so good and did some really difficult and special things tonight,” Pope said.
Alabama had given up 204 points in its previous two games, losses to Auburn and Missouri. It was much more aggressive with its on-ball defense against UK since the Cats were again without point guard Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson, the team’s best offensive threat.
“I thought our guys played hard,” Givens said on the UK Radio Network postgame show. “I thought we laid it on the line tonight and there was not much that they could have done to improve the outcome of this game. I loved what they brought to this game.”
Pope said he was proud of the team’s fight as well.
“Minus the last 90 seconds where the wheels fell off our guys competed,” the Kentucky coach said. “We just were not good enough tonight. We know where our end goal is and we have to fight, find ways to execute better, and get more experience. I love the guys and love coaching them. We are up against it and we are going to find answers.”
4 Responses
Playing a veteran, well coached team with 3 freshmen ( of any talent level ) on the floor is just a bridge too far.
We started the game playing Pope ball. After 10 minutes we reverted to playing hero ball. Quick guards seem to be our kryptonite. We are what we are. We need 2 more wins to stay at .500 in the SEC. The SEC tourney will have us playing on Wednesday, but we could pick up a couple of wins there, maybe a couple in the Dance. Then Pope needs to focus on 2025/26. The freshmen recruits will be good, the current Freshmen will be better, maybe we get Ament, maybe we don’t. Pope needs to focus on recruiting would be sophomores from the portal. That would give them 3 years to play in his system and that is what it will take for us to be contenders again. Now focus on beating the Sooners. Go CATS!!!
Short memory..onward and upward.. let’s get healthy and see what’s what.. And engine needs all cylinders working properly for maximum performance. Clearly and factually attrition has caused our engine to not be running well enough but you have to keep driving towards the destination. And hopefully somewhere along the destination you find a mechanic and you get full power back. Then we’ll see what’s what.
I am still not sure I have ever seen a team miss as many shots in close as these Cats. Couple that with no interior D and outcome very predictable. Inconsistency continues to dog this time. We finally put pedal to metal first few minutes of the game and then coast from there. Oweh just can’t have a game like that after his overall consistency and production during the year. Garrison continues to be satisfied with riding the cart and Noah has to do better with the chances he gets. Does Calipari have his team better prepared for year end run than we do? Never thought I could possibly think that let alone ask that. Injuries do play a major role in this, but we should still be better at this point in the season. We are still doing too much stretching and navigating. Pope looked very uneasy during the post game last night.
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