Nate Oats: "Everybody knows that we don't really guard at this point."
Alabama basketball head coach Nate Oats has been calling for a defensive presence from his players all season long, and more times than not, his call wasn’t answered. On yet another tough road game for the Crimson Tide, it was the same old story.
Facing off against No. 17 Kentucky inside Rupp Arena, Alabama was exposed all night long on the defensive end as it fell 117-95 to the Wildcats in embarrassing fashion.
“I told our guys after the game we’ve had question marks about our defense all year,” Oats said. “Those question marks are completely erased, everybody knows we don’t really guard at this point.”
Early in the season, the Crimson Tide would nearly give up as many points as it would score. Even now, not much has changed. The offense still scores at an incredibly high clip, while the defense continues to produce similar results.
The Wildcats’ 117 points were the most it has scored against Alabama in a single game in the history of the two programs. Head coach John Calipari provided a tough offensive test for the Crimson Tide, and it failed miserably.
“Kentucky was ready to play tonight, we weren’t,” Oats said. “Cal had his guys ready to go, I didn’t. They looked great, we looked awful. Our defensive intensity was not there.”
Calipari’s squad had one of its most efficient shooting nights of the season as the Wildcats shot 63.1% from the field, struggling to even miss a shot. In fact, Kentucky’s Justin Edwards actually went a perfect 10-for-10 from the floor as the freshman guard led his team with 28 points.
Alabama looked lost all night long against Kentucky and got a strong taste of its own medicine. The Wildcats currently have the third highest scoring offense in the country, averaging 87.6 points per game, and the Crimson Tide allowed them to play as if it averaged triple digits.
“If the defense isn’t fixable, we’re not going to be able to win any big games,” Oats said. “I don’t know that it’s fixable to the point where we can be like we were last year when we were third in the country. That’s past the point of doing that.”
Typically not known for its three-point shooting, Kentucky also seemed like the superior team from beyond the arc as well. The Wildcats shot 13-for-24 (54.2%) from deep, while Alabama shot just 6-for-17 (35.3%) from three.
Calipari’s squad was able to score on all areas of the floor and Oats’ squad had absolutely no way of stopping it.
“There’s not a lot of positives about this,” Oats said. “We got four games left and we got to try to figure out how to get these guys a little more motivated to play harder on defense.”
After a head-scratching performance from Alabama on the road, the Crimson Tide will hit the road once again as it will travel to Oxford, Mississippi for its next matchup against the Ole Miss Rebels on Feb. 28 at 8:00 p.m. CT.