Alabama basketball 'rattles' Kentucky in blowout win

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Coleman Coliseum got a taste of March at the beginning of January.

With more than 30 NBA Scouts and 13,474 fans in attendance, Alabama cruised to a convincing 26-point victory against Kentucky. The win is now the largest margin of victory in 157 games between the Crimson Tide and Wildcats.

The lopsided scoreline allowed for some creative chats of "Cal to Texas" and "NIT" to arise from the crowd.

"We got rattled," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We had a bunch of guys who got rattled in the game and even in the second half when we opened it up and went dribble-drive straight, we weren’t able to move and get where we were able to go."

It was an aspect the Alabama players fed off of to start the second half using an 11-3 run to extend its 11-point halftime lead to 20 points and beyond.

While the offense reached a new gear, the Crimson Tide defense remained stingy holding reigning player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe to a season-low four points on 1-for-7 shooting while the Wildcats shot an abysmal 28.8% from the field.

"I feel like our fans really rattled them,” Alabama freshman Brandon Miller said. "I think they came out with a lot of high energy from the jump. I think with us playing hard rattled them too. I mean you have Charles (Bediako) guarding one of the best centers in the nation."

Despite his appreciation for the rowdy atmosphere, Alabama head coach Nate Oats was quick to dispel any support for the "NIT" chant, citing Kentucky "is not going to go to the NIT, They’re going to be an NCAA tournament team."

However he did hope the Wildcats recover from their 10-5 start and goes on a run to close out the season with Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia and Auburn still left on the schedule.

As for Alabama, it will look to avoid the pitfalls Kentucky fell into on Saturday when it travels to No. 13 Arkansas next week. The Razorbacks fell to Auburn 72-59, and similar to the Wildcats will look to prove themselves against a ranked Crimson Tide team who already has three Quad 1 wins so far this season.

"Students are going to be students," Oats said. "I love them. They’re great. That’s why college environments are better than NBA environments because student sections that gets after it but it’s still college students being college students."