Kentucky’s win streak comes to crashing halt in ‘butt-whipping, for sure’
In more ways than one, an Alabama player had a pointed question for Kentucky Coach John Calipari when Tuesday night’s game ended.
“One of their players asked me, ‘What’s the score?’” Calipari said with a smile. To which the UK coach said he replied, “You know what it is.”
It was 85-65.
The Tide never trailed in whipping suddenly all-to-human Kentucky in Rupp Arena. Making the handling of Kentucky all the more startling, Alabama lost two of its players to injury along the way, the first midway in the opening half and the second with more than 11 minutes left.
The victory — which was only the fifth time Alabama has won by a double-digit margin at Kentucky, and the first time since 1987 — kept the Tide in first place in the Southeastern Conference. Alabama improved to 10-3 overall and 5-0 in the SEC.
It was the second-largest margin of victory for Alabama at Kentucky. The only bigger victory was 94-71 on Feb. 23, 1974.
Or as Dontaie Allen summed up succinctly, “It was a butt-whipping, for sure.”
If that wasn’t plain enough, Devin Askew added, “We didn’t show up today.”
As the historical footnotes suggested, Calipari hoped aloud that it was an aberration.
“My hope is this is a knockoff game …,” he said. “This may be one that you burn the tape, don’t even look at it. My hope is this isn’t who we are.”
It was what Kentucky had been. The December bugaboos of poor shooting and turnovers returned and doomed the Cats to a seventh loss in 11 games. The SEC record slipped to 3-1.
UK had seven assists and 19 turnovers while making four of 18 three-point shots.
“We reverted,” Calipari said.
Calipari lamented his team’s swinging-door defense. Again and again, Alabama players drove to the basket. Stats savant Ken Pomeroy ranked Alabama 306th among Division I teams in terms of reliance on two-point shots. Alabama outscored UK 32-22 in the paint, no doubt helped by a 28-10 advantage in transition points.
“Did we have anybody who could stay in front of anybody?” Calipari asked. “I don’t know. It didn’t look like it.”
Alabama did not abandon its trademark three-point attack. The Tide’s 14 three-pointers (in 30 attempts) were a season high for a UK opponent.
“Our game plan was to play up so it would force them to drive,” Allen said.
UK did not do enough of either, which enabled Alabama to drive for scores and hit three-pointers. The 46.7-percent shooting accuracy from beyond the arc was also a season best for a UK opponent.
“It was almost like they were playing an AAU basketball game, a circus act,” Askew said.
Kentucky trailed for all but 47 seconds. The deficit was 42-30 at halftime.
Making that more glaring was Alabama having to play without one of its mainstays for more than half of the opening 20 minutes.
Herbert Jones, who has won multiple “Hard Hat” awards given by Alabama, went down with 10:57 remaining in the first half.
Jones crumbled to the court after driving to the basket. When he got up, he held his left hand and wrist as he was escorted to the locker room.
Gone was a player who made the All-SEC defensive team last season. Besides being Alabama’s second-leading scorer (12.4 points per game) and leading rebounder (6.4), he had led the team in and-one conversions, “floor dives” and charges taken.
Several of Kentucky’s turnovers came on passes into the post. After Alabama intercepted Allen’s feed late in the first half, Calipari’s body language spoke bewilderment as he put a hand to his forehead as he walked from near center court toward what under normal circumstances would be Kentucky’s bench.
UK’s deficit grew to 53-36 with 15 minutes left. Freshman Joshua Primu, who scored a season-high 22 points in Alabama’s victory at Auburn on Saturday, made his first basket.
Kentucky closed within 54-43, then got another break when a second Alabama player had to leave the game with an injury. This time it was Jordan Bruner, who had scored 20 points at Auburn.
Even with two Alabama players sidelined, Kentucky could not get within single digits of the Tide.
The three-game winning streak to start January seemed a distant memory.
“They’ve shown what they can be,” Calipari said. “But they’ve also shown now what they can be.”
Askew was defiant in defeat.
“This is not where our story ends,” he said. “We’ve got a long journey. This is still part of the beginning.”
Next game
Kentucky at Auburn
2 p.m. Saturday (ESPN)
