Kentucky’s Mark Pope needs more than a healthy roster. And Alabama just proved it
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Alabama exposed Kentucky’s chemistry gaps, beating it 89-74 in SEC opener
- Kentucky went 4 for 19 from 3-point range (21.1%) and had just nine assists vs Bama
- Pope must define identity: improve physicality, interior passing and pace
Two weeks after Jayden Quaintance made his Kentucky basketball debut and got everybody who roots for the Wildcats excited all over again, Alabama provided a wake-up call.
No, this won’t be anything close to a cakewalk for the Cats in SEC play. Even with its full complement of players, Mark Pope’s 2025-26 roster remains a work in progress.
The Crimson Tide — ranked 14th nationally and perhaps the team to beat in the league once again — led by double digits for most of the game Saturday afternoon and walked out of Coleman Coliseum with an 89-74 victory over Kentucky in the SEC opener.
The loss — UK’s fifth of the season, all against teams currently ranked in The Associated Press top 20 — came two weeks after the Cats beat St. John’s in Atlanta for their biggest win of the season.
In that game, Quaintance made his first appearance as a Wildcat after being sidelined for 10 months with a knee injury. And — following an injury scare that limited him to seven seconds on the court before halftime — point guard Jaland Lowe returned to help lead the Cats over the Johnnies in the second half.
With Lowe and Quaintance in the mix — for the first time all season — UK outscored St. John’s 53-34 in that second half, finally looking like the preseason top-10 team they had been in November.
Pope had everyone at his disposal yet again Saturday, and the result was much different.
After Kentucky started the game with a 5-0 run, Alabama ran off the next nine points. And the Crimson Tide never trailed again, their lead ballooning to as many as 21 points in the first half and never dipping below nine after halftime.
“Kentucky’s not what everybody was hoping over there that they would be this year, but they still have a lot of talent,” said Bama coach Nate Oats, who beat UK for the fourth consecutive time after going 3-0 against Pope last season. “... And they had some injuries, and they’re getting their chemistry back together. And lucky for us — fortunately for us — they don’t have that many games under their belt with everybody available. And I don’t think their chemistry is quite where they want it right now. But they’re still good.”
Kentucky showed some of that good in spots Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats didn’t wilt after falling behind by 21 points late in the first half. They battled back to within nine on two separate occasions late in the game, but the highlights were few in yet another loss to Alabama.
The box score left plenty for Pope to pick at afterward.
Offensively, the Cats had one of their worst games of the season.
Kentucky once again struggled from 3-point range, going just 4 for 19 from deep. UK is now 38 for 161 on long-range shots against its seven quality opponents. That’s 23.6%, and it’s actually getting worse. UK has shot 11 for 50 on 3-pointers over its past three matchups with high-major foes — wins over Indiana and St. John’s, and Saturday’s loss to Bama — with no more than four makes in any of those games.
In the SEC opener, the Wildcats managed just nine assists. “The ball was pretty sticky,” Pope said.
He went on to lament his team’s ability to generate good offense.
“We weren’t aggressive getting downhill,” Pope said. “Our practice didn’t translate to the game. You know, our intentionality of making plays for teammates was tough. Our pace was lacking at times. So those things — just the fundamentals — we can do it. We’ll do it, but we did not do it today. Nine assists — under 10 assists — that’s not good basketball.”
This was Pope’s 50th game as Kentucky’s head coach. It was just the third time that his Wildcats had failed to dish out at least 10 assists.
Meanwhile, Alabama’s players were making 3-pointers from all over the court. The Crimson Tide hit 10 long-range shots in the first half alone, with Aden Holloway sinking one in the final seconds before halftime to give Bama a 50-34 lead at the break.
Oats’ team — the most efficient offensive unit in the country coming into the game — shot 15 for 38 from the perimeter by the end of it. The Tide outscored the Cats by 33 points from beyond the arc, and their 15 made 3-pointers were the most UK has surrendered in a season and a half under Pope.
Kentucky’s coach said Bama hurt his team with flares early on. “They have shooters all over the floor, which is just Alabama basketball,” he added. Holloway went 6 for 8 on 3s, scoring more from the perimeter than UK’s entire team.
Pope thought the Cats had success when they were able to close out and contest shots.
“But we just didn’t get there enough,” he acknowledged, adding that Kentucky’s communication on defense was lacking for long stretches.
Oats said he noticed in the pregame scout that UK’s assist rate against good teams has been low this season. One key contributor to that — he found after watching the film — was the Wildcats’ interior play. When the ball made its way into the paint, it often didn’t come back out.
“They throw it in, like, these guys aren’t trying to pass,” Oats said. “They’re trying to score the ball.”
As a result, Alabama’s guards swarmed UK’s bigs at every opportunity.
Kentucky’s frontcourt had a rough go of it in general, despite Alabama playing shorthanded in the post. Aiden Sherrell, the Tide’s No. 2 rebounder, was ruled out at halftime with an injury. Starting forward Taylor Bol Bowen, the team’s No. 3 rebounder, didn’t play at all due to injury.
Still, Bama outrebounded the Cats 41-37, grabbing two more offensive rebounds than UK.
“I was just really disappointed with our effectiveness on the glass,” Pope said. “We knew coming in that this was gonna have to be a massive win on the glass. Credit Alabama for showing up for the fight and being physical. Disappointed with us. For us to walk out of here shooting a really poor percentage and being outrebounded by four — and outrebounded on the offensive glass by two — … that is a problem. It’s not OK for us.
“Our identity, basketball wise, has got to be something more than that. That physicality was missing. We knew it was something we had to have, and we didn’t get it tonight.”
Kentucky’s identity, it’s clear, has yet to be defined.
The Cats aren’t anything close to the 3-point threat that they often were in Pope’s first season. The playmaking often hasn’t been there. Physicality was supposed to be a calling card with Quaintance — at 6-10 and 255 pounds — in the lineup, but the projected NBA lottery pick was largely neutralized in his first SEC game.
Quaintance had five points and six rebounds in 24 minutes, and Bama ran multiple bodies at him for much of the game. The Tide outscored the Cats by 20 points with Quaintance on the court, the worst plus-minus for a UK player.
Mouhamed Dioubate had eight rebounds but just six points in his return to Tuscaloosa, where he played his first two college seasons. The Bama fans booed Dioubate every time he touched the ball Saturday, and the Bama players swarmed him in the paint, too.
Dioubate sat for the final 8:18 of the game, leaving the court with an apparent injury that was not addressed afterward, when Pope spoke for fewer than five minutes before “last question” was called.
Two weeks after the win over St. John’s restored hope that this Kentucky team could in fact be a contender now that Pope had his full roster, Alabama threw water on the notion that the turnaround would happen overnight. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all.
“I mean, they’ve got players over there that will play in the NBA,” Oats said. “They’ve got McDonald’s All-Americans. They got some of the very best transfers to come out of the portal. So that’s a high-talent team over there.”
A lot of talent, for sure, but it’s not on the same page just yet.
Kentucky is now 9-5 on the season and 0-1 in the SEC. Seventeen league games are ahead of the Wildcats — starting with Missouri on Wednesday night in Rupp Arena — and Oats offered a vote of confidence Saturday for any Cat fans who are ready to check out, referencing the eight victories UK had over AP top-15 opponents last season. That tied an NCAA record.
“So it’s not like Coach Pope doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Oats concluded.
There’s a lot of season left. There’s also a long way for these Wildcats to go to live up to their preseason expectations. And simply having everyone available to play isn’t going to be enough to beat good teams.
Alabama showed them that Saturday afternoon.
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 4:58 PM.
