Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s loss to No. 4 Alabama in Tuscaloosa
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Game day: No. 4 Alabama 96, No. 17 Kentucky 83
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 96-83 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday at Coleman Coliseum:
1. No Butler, no Robinson, plenty of problems
You can survive shorthanded for awhile. You can rally around each other, have players step up, and win a game or two without your starting guards. You might even win more than you lose. Over the long haul, it’s not sustainable.
Not when when you’re playing a good team on its home floor. Not when you’re playing a good team eager to snap a two-game losing streak and sweep a regular-season series against a blue-blood program.
Kentucky might not have won this game with Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson on the floor, but not having the team’s point guard (Butler) and shooting guard (Robinson) made Saturday’s assignment against the nation’s No. 4 team much, much tougher. Too tough, in fact.
Bama’s star guard Mark Sears scored 30 points, hitting eight of his 17 shots. The preseason SEC player of the year was a perfect 11-for-11 from the foul line. Freshman guard Aden Holloway scored 19 points, nailing five of his 12 attempts from 3-point land.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s freshmen duo of Travis Perry and Trent Noah struggled on the defensive end. Perry ended up minus-18 in his 28 minutes. Noah was minus-20 in 23 minutes. They’re going to be a good players. Saturday, they were in a tough spot.
2. Give Kentucky credit for hanging tough
It could have been a blowout. After Kentucky jumped to a 30-18 lead with 9:36 left in the first half, the Wildcats were outscored 29-10 as Alabama took a 47-40 lead into the break. And when the Crimson Tide stretched the advantage to 11 points (53-42) over the first three minutes of the second half, you thought Nate Oats’ team might run off and hide.
That didn’t happen. Thanks to Andrew Carr, Amari Williams and Koby Brea, the Cats hung tough. A basket in the lane by Carr sliced Alabama’s lead to 63-60 with 11:27 left. A basket in the paint by Brea with 8:18 remaining pulled Kentucky within 70-66.
Alas, the Cats could never get over the hump. And a 10-2 Alabama run pushed the home team’s advantage out to 80-68. Kentucky could get no closer than seven points — 86-79 with 2:50 left — the rest of the way.
An off night from Otega Oweh didn’t help. The Oklahoma transfer had scored in double figures in every game of the season — until Saturday. Oweh fouled out after scoring just two points on 1-for-9 shooting from the floor in 22 minutes.
When asked what Alabama did to limit Oweh, Pope paused before saying, “You’re trying to bait me into an answer, aren’t you?” Perhaps that was a nod to the Tide’s physical play.
3. Time is running short
It’s getting late, of course. Now 18-9 overall and 7-7 in the SEC, Kentucky has but four games left in its regular season, starting with Wednesday’s trip to Oklahoma. That’s the same Oklahoma that snapped a five-game losing streak with a 93-87 win over No. 21 Mississippi State on Saturday in Norman.
In a way, forced to play with a new roster, with players in new positions, Pope’s team feels like it is racing against time. That’s especially true on the defensive end. UK had made progress the past few games without Butler and Jackson, but Alabama exposed the Cats in areas.
“Alabama is a terrific team and they put us in tough situations that we didn’t respond well to,” the UK coach said. “It’s a work in progress. We talk about this all the time, it’s fits and starts. This was not our best defensive performance tonight. Mark Sears had a lot to do with that and Alabama had a lot to do with that. And we had a lot to do with that.
“We’re getting down the stretch run and us getting better is something that we’re obsessing about and we’re determine to do.”
The best news: Both Butler and Robinson reportedly did some light work in UK’s shootaround the morning before the game.
This story was originally published February 22, 2025 at 9:51 PM.
