TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There will only be one ranked team inside Coleman Coliesum for Saturday’s matchup between Alabama basketball and Kentucky.
It’s not the one most would typically expect.
After starting the season at No. 4 in the Associated Press top 25, Kentucky will be unranked when it takes on No. 7 Alabama this weekend.
The Wildcats (10-4, 1-1 in the SEC) began SEC play with a 14-point loss at Missouri last month and barely eeked out a three-point win at home over LSU earlier this week. The slow start, paired with a first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament last season has caused Big Blue Nation to start seeing red.
However, when it comes to Wildcats fans voicing their discontent Alabama basketball head coach Nate Oats believes the complaints aren’t necessarily warranted.
“They’re spoiled,” Oats said when asked about the negativity coming from Kentucky fans recently. “They’re probably a lot like Alabama football fans, to be honest with you. Like, we’re not in the College Football Playoffs and everybody’s upset and acts like it’s a bad year. Shoot, I don’t know what the final football polls were but after watching to the games previous, it looked like we might be in the top three or four teams in the country still and people are upset around here.
“Well, if Kentucky’s not in the top 3 or 4, people are probably upset up there. They’re a really good team, though.”
Kentucky hasn’t won a regular-season SEC title since 2020 and hasn’t hoisted a conference tournament trophy since 2018. This year, the Wildcats are currently behind five ranked teams in Alabama as well as No. 8 Tennessee, No. 13 Arkansas, No. Missouri and No. 22 Auburn.
Still, the sky isn't necessarily falling in Lexington, Ky.
Two of Kentucky's losses are to current top-10 teams in No. 9 Gonzaga (88-72) and No. 10 UCLA (63-53). The Wildcats also suffered an 86-77 defeat to Michigan State in double-overtime. Even the loss to Missouri doesn't seem as devastating considering the Tigers are off to a 12-2 start.
“To me, they’ve played a good schedule,” Oats said. “I mean, they’re good. They fixed some of their … I think they were upset they didn’t have enough shooting before and now they’re leading the SEC in 3-point percentage.”
Still, Alabama (12-2, 2-0) enters Saturday's matchup as the favorites as KenPom gives the Crimson Tide a 70% shot of beating the Wildcats.
With Oats leading the program to new levels, Alabama also appears to be a growing threat to Kentucky's annual SEC dominance. The Crimson Tide won both the SEC regular-season title and conference tournament in the 2020-21 season and should have the firepower to make a run at both feats again this year.
That being said, Oats was quick to pump the breaks when asked if his program is close to reaching anything close to what Kentucky has built.
“It’s still Kentucky. You’d have to do this for year after year after year," Oats said. "Now, I will say this, people’s memory gets a little shorter here. Kentucky’s Kentucky. They’ve been doing it for multiple years, especially since Cal took over. We won the SEC two years ago and were in the middle of the pack last year and the middle of the pack the year before. We’ve got to do this for multiple years in a row to get where I feel like people are going to look at us the way they look at Kentucky, to be honest with you.
“When we get into recruiting battles, people aren’t looking at us like Kentucky right now. I can assure you. Now we’ve been able to recruit very well. Brian and Pettway have done a really good job bringing some good talent in here, but Kentucky’s still got a little bit — not a little bit — Kentucky’s still has that persona about being Kentucky.”
Alabama and Kentucky are set to tip off at noon CT on Saturday. The Crimson Tide enters the game winners of seven of its last eight games and will be looking to keep its perfect start to SEC play intact after downing Mississippi State and Ole Miss to open its conference slate.
“We’re there this year,” Oats said. “You talk about our guys this year, we’ve got really good players. We’ve done a really good job getting them to buy in and play together. The players have done a great job putting ourselves in a spot. They’re the No. 7 team in the country. Kentucky’s got soem really talented players who are going to play us really tough. They dropped a few that maybe they wished they wouldn’t have dropped, and they’r trying to claw their way back in it. It’s going to be a war tomorrow.”
