ENSLARGE EVERY The best offensive team in college basketball, Alabama men’s basketball had the highest scoring total and most efficiency going into Rupp Arena on Saturday. In any case, the Crimson Tide was destroyed.
SEC-leading Alabama was crushed 117-95 by Kentucky, the latest development in another wild UK basketball season. However, the defeat and overall on-court performance for Alabama reminded fans of the Crimson Tide’s inconsistent play in nonconference games.
In terms of defense, Alabama (19-8 overall, 11-3 in the SEC) gave up 1.539 points per possession to UK, which was the Wildcats’ most effective offensive effort in over 20 years.
The Crimson Tide scored on 10 of their first 11 offensive possessions, but they only scored on 9 of their final 26 first-half possessions.
This included a 7:46 span in the first quarter during which Alabama managed only one field goal. With 9:15 remaining in the first half, Kentucky (19-8, 9-5) grabbed a commanding lead, leading by 16 points at the half and never looking back. This season, Alabama has lost all three of its conference games away, and by sizable margins: 20 at Tennessee, 18 at Auburn, and 22 at Kentucky right now.
Kentucky defeated Alabama, 117-95. Silas Walker swalker@herald-leader.com Opening statement: Kentucky was ready to play tonight, we weren’t. Cal (John Calipari) had his guys ready to go, I didn’t. They looked great, we looked awful.
Our defense intensity was… I told our guys after the game that we’ve had question marks about our defense all year, those question marks are pretty erased: Everyone knows we don’t guard at this point… I thought our effort stunk and part of the issue was we turned it over and they scored 29 points off our 16 turnovers.
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