The rollercoaster continues for Kentucky. Saturday’s 89-74 loss to No. 14 Alabama wasn’t a disaster on the spectrum of the Gonzaga beatdown or the UNC collapse. It’s tough to win on the road, especially in the SEC against a Nate Oats-coached club. But any proclamations that Kentucky was fixed for good after grimy wins over St. John’s and Indiana have certainly fallen flat.
Maybe the biggest takeaway from Saturday’s 15-point loss is that the offseason narrative that Kentucky had the deepest roster in the sport could not be farther from the truth.
Instead, it was Alabama who flexed its depth, not Kentucky.
Alabama superstar Labaron Philon finished with 17 points, but he was a non-factor (two points on 1-4 shooting) in the first half due to foul trouble. Alabama built its 23-point, first-half lead with contributions from brilliant shot-making from Aden Holloway (26 points, six treys), heart and hustle from freshman Amari Allen (11 points, nine rebounds, three assists), the flame throwing display from Houston Mallette (14 points, four 3-pointers) and the best showing of the year from seldom-used backup center Noah Williamson (10 points, four boards).
Oats had nine players he trusted to enter the game on Saturday and play winning basketball.
How many does Kentucky have? Preseason SEC Player of the Year Otega Oweh shook off a shaky start and delivered 22 points. Jaland Lowe, balky shoulder and all, gutted it out on his way to a 21-point showing. The lefty point guard is pretty clearly Kentucky’s most valuable player. Mo Dioubate was his usual active self, totaling six points and a team-high eight rebounds against his old club. Jayden Quaintance had some rust to knock off, as expected, but his motor was still revving. But who else after that?
Denzel Aberdeen, Brandon Garrison, Jasper Johnson, Collin Chandler and Malachi Moreno were non-factors. To this scribe’s eye, it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Kentucky had multiple flurries to get back into this one, even cutting it to a nine-point game with 5:55 to go. They just weren’t good enough and didn’t execute well enough. Smashmouth basketball might work against Indiana, but Alabama’s bombs-away approach was far too much to overcome.
Ultimately, Alabama had its cake and ate it, too. It answered Oats’ call to ramp up the effort on the glass and out-rebounded Kentucky, 41-37. Kentucky knew it was not built to win the 3-point battle, but losing the battle at the 3-point stripe by 33 points is a recipe for disaster.
Alabama has now knocked off Kentucky for the fourth straight time. It’s just the third time a SEC foe has done that against Kentucky in the last 40 years.
Kentucky is just 17-17 against fellow high-major teams since Pope took over, and it’s the way Kentucky is losing that’s jarring. It’s the 11th double-digit loss for Kentucky in the Pope era (50 games). This isn’t the standard, and it’s challenging to envision a roadmap for it to magically disappear from this team’s range of potential outcomes.
Pope doesn’t seem to know who to trust on a nightly basis, and this fanbase seems to be losing trust in the organization with each double-digit defeat.
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