Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 89-74 loss vs. No. 14 Alabama
Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 89-74 loss at Alabama:
1. Nate Oats is in rare company. With the Alabama win, Oats is now 7-5 (7-4 at Alabama, 0-1 at Buffalo) as a head coach in head-to-head games against Kentucky.
That makes Oats one of only five head coaches who have played against UK as many as 10 times and who have a winning record against the Wildcats.
The other four are a name you will not recognize and three names you will know:
• Boyd Chambers, 6-4 vs. UK (0-1 at Marshall and 6-3 at Cincinnati from 1914 through 1926);
• Tom Izzo, 7-4 vs. UK at Michigan State;
• Bill Self, 9-6 vs. UK at Tulsa and Kansas;
• Dean Smith, 13-3 vs. UK at North Carolina (1961 through 1997).
2. A tale of the 3-point line. Kentucky dominated the specialty stats Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
UK led points off turnovers 15-14.
The Cats won the bench scoring 32-27.
Points in the paint favored UK 36-32.
Fast break points went to Kentucky 14-4.
Second-chance points favored the Cats, 15-13.
With all that, UK got smoked by Alabama.
The reason was the 3-point line, where Bama sank 15 treys in 38 attempts, while Kentucky made only 4 of 19.
It’s going to be hard to win any game when you are outscored 45-12 from behind the arc.
3. Otega Oweh faces his kryptonite. Going into Saturday’s game, the UK wing had scored in double figures in 46 of the 49 games he has played for the Wildcats.
Two of the three contests in which Oweh failed to score at least 10 points came last season vs. Alabama.
In UK’s 96-83 loss at Tuscaloosa last year, Oweh had his worst game as a Wildcat. Bama held the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Oweh to two points on 1-of-9 shooting.
Things weren’t much better for the Newark, New Jersey product during Alabama’s 99-70 strafing of UK in the 2025 SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Oweh went 1 of 6 shooting in that one and finished with eight points and five turnovers.
Only in the first of Kentucky’s three losses to Alabama last season, the 102-97 defeat at Rupp Arena, did Oweh play well vs. the Tide, going for 21 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
On Saturday, Oweh played well. Even as the Cats fell behind 50-34 at halftime, Oweh had 13 points and was effective getting the ball to the rim.
In the second half, Oweh had a couple of costly turnovers as UK tried to mount a late-game rally, but he still finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
Oweh and Jaland Lowe (21) combined for 43 of UK’s 74 points.
4. Mouhamed Dioubate’s Alabama homecoming. Kentucky’s junior power forward played his first two college seasons for Alabama.
In 70 games played on Crimson Tide teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament Final Four (2024) and the round of eight (2025), Dioubate averaged 5.2 points and 4.3 rebounds and made 57.1% of his field-goat attempts.
Back in Tuscaloosa on Saturday and rocking Kentucky blue, Dioubate was booed during pregame introductions — and that continued anytime he touched the ball throughout the game.
When the former Alabama forward went to the foul line with 1:56 left before halftime, then again with 29.6 seconds left in half one, the Crimson Tide student section fired up chants of “Mo, you suck!” each time.
Things appeared to be a little chippy at times between Dioubate and his former teammates.
The ex-Crimson Tide forward finished with six points and eight rebounds for UK vs. his old team.
5. Alabama joins a select list. Alabama’s victory was its fourth in a row over Kentucky dating back to last season. That put the Crimson Tide on a historically-rare list for an SEC men’s basketball program.
Among the current teams in the Southeastern Conference, Alabama is only the fourth to have ever beaten Kentucky as many as four straight times.
Florida had a seven-game winning streak vs. UK from March 13, 2005, through Jan. 19, 2008.
Tennessee has had four different win streaks of at least four games vs. Kentucky.
The Volunteers beat the Wildcats four straight from Feb. 23, 1916, through March 13, 1917; from March 5, 1966, through Jan. 22, 1968; and from Jan. 20, 1979, through Jan.. 5, 1980.
UT beat UK five in a row from February 15, 1975, through March 5, 1977.
Vanderbilt has two win streaks of four straight vs. Kentucky: From Jan. 22, 1973, through March 2, 1974; and from Jan. 10, 2006, through Feb. 25, 2007.
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 2:22 PM.
