Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 66-55 win over Alabama

Five things you need to know from the No. 5 Kentucky Wildcats’ 66-55 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in an SEC men’s basketball game at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa:

1. Kentucky shows the mettle of a good team. UK star Oscar Tshiebwe played, arguably, his worst game of the year in Tuscaloosa.

Oh, the 6-foot-9, 255-pound transfer from West Virginia produced his normal double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds, but Tshiebwe made only four of 13 shots and had three turnovers.

Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler has now gone two straight games without making a field goal.

After going 0-of-8 in the home win over Vanderbilt on Wednesday night, the 5-foot-9 Wheeler was 0-for-4 Saturday.

The Wildcats shot 40 percent for the game and were outrebounded 47-44.

Yet, with all that going wrong, Kentucky went on the road and decisively beat an Alabama team that already has wins this season over three (Baylor, Gonzaga and Houston) of last season’s Final Four.

When a team can beat quality opponents with key players performing below their norm and a whole lot going wrong — and do it on the road — you have a team capable of doing damage in March Madness.

2. TyTy finds his groove. After returning from the ankle injury that sidelined him in the Auburn game, Kentucky freshman star TyTy Washington had been searching to get his game back.

The 6-3, 197-pound Phoenix product had made only four of 16 shots since returning.

In Tuscaloosa, TyTy started to get his groove back.

He made only six of 15 shots, but in a game where field goals were hard to come by, he was Kentucky’s best offensive weapon.

Washington finished with a team-high 15 points. It was his first double-figure scoring game since he had 28 against Tennessee in Rupp Jan. 15.

He converted one of five three-point shots, but that was his first made trey since the UT win.

To cap an encouraging performance, Washington also added three rebounds, two assists and a steal.

3. All Hail, Daimion. Kentucky got a huge and unexpected lift from freshman forward Daimion Collins.

The willowy 6-foot-9, 202-pound product of Atlanta, Texas, had only played in five games since the calendar flipped from 2021 to 2022. Collins had not scored more than two points in a game since he had six in UK’s blowout of High Point on New Year’s Eve.

But in an impactful three-minute, first-half stint at Alabama, Collins scored on an alley-oop dunk off a nifty pass from Davion Mintz and cashed four of four foul shots.

Collins finished the first half with six points and three boards.

That earned Collins some second-half minutes, and he made them count, too.

After halftime, Collins scored on another alley-oop dunk, hit two more foul shots and grabbed three more rebounds.

He finished the game with 10 points and six boards in nine minutes. UK was plus-13 with him on the floor.

It was the third double-digit scoring game of Collins’ Kentucky career following a 14-point performance vs. Robert Morris and a 12-point game against North Florida, both in November.

Against teams that are especially muscular, the skinny Collins may not be “playable.”

But if the talented but raw freshman were to turn the proverbial corner down the stretch, he could become UK’s “X-factor.”

4. Cats deny Tide a piece of history. With its victory, Kentucky prevented Alabama from beating UK for a third straight time for the first time in school history.

The Crimson Tide swept the season series from the Wildcats last season, beating the Cats 85-65 at Rupp Arena and 70-59 at Coleman Coliseum.

In the now-155-game basketball history between Kentucky and Alabama, the Tide have beaten UK two straight on eight different occasions — but have never been able to make it three in a row.

5. The ‘never three straight vs. the Cats’ club. Alabama remains one of five current SEC members that have never beaten UK in three consecutive men’s basketball games.

The others are Auburn, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas A&M.

Not shockingly, the SEC team with the most win streaks of at least three games vs. Kentucky is Tennessee, which has six such streaks.

This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 10:31 PM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription