Alabama basketball made history in its series against Kentucky: What it means | Goodbread

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mark Pope's team can play.

This Kentucky bunch might not be an obvious national championship contender, but before delving into the history Alabama basketball made Friday night with a 99-70 dismantling of the Wildcats in the SEC Tournament, know this: UK has piled up 22 wins, including a victory over the No. 1 team in the country, Duke.

It's squarely in the nation's top 15 in the NET rankings. It's got a terrifically talented guard-big man duo in Otega Oweh and Amari Williams. And it's a no-brainer for an NCAA Tournament bid that should be good for a 3- or 4-seed when the selection committee unveils the bracket Sunday.

Now for the history: Alabama's victory gave it three wins over UK in one season for the first time ever. In fact, it's UA's first three-game win streak of any kind over the Wildcats in a series that goes back more than 100 years and 160 games.

Alabama now holds an all-time mark of 44-117 against the tradition-rich blueblood. It's been a dismal track record, not unlike Kentucky's all-time history against most schools. By itself, it's a factoid that says nothing about Alabama's chances of winning the SEC tourney (UA faces Florida on Saturday), nor is it at all predictive about how the Crimson Tide will fare in the NCAA Tournament.

But it does mark a sea change in UA's continuing upward surge as one of the nation's best programs. These are the kinds of things that happen when the right coach gets the right resources, at the right school, at the right time. This is why Nate Oats' contract buyout is a whopper. The number of athletics directors in the country who wouldn't trade their coach for Alabama's Oats can be counted on your fingers.

Maybe on one hand.

For a few years now, not just one fleeting season, Kentucky simply hasn't had a more talented roster than Alabama. And pre-Oats, that's a sentence I'm not sure I ever thought I'd write.

With an injury-depleted backcourt, Kentucky hung around in the first half against Alabama thanks largely to some cold UA shooting from 3-point range; its first nine 3-point attempts all missed. But when the Crimson Tide caught fire in the second half, combined with solid defense and a turnover advantage, the Wildcats didn't stand a chance in the tournament's worst blowout entering semifinal play.

"We've kind of established ourselves as a top-10 program in the country over these last four or five years," Oats said. "We know Kentucky's good. We're also good, (but) this Kentucky team's had a lot of injuries. They're not at full strength; we know that. But it's nice to get three of them. … They were a lot closer to full strength, I think they had everybody at their place. That was a big win."

With a home win, a road win and now a neutral-floor win over the 'Cats, we can be certain UK doesn't want anything to do with an NCAA bracket matchup with the Crimson Tide. It was a thrashing that had Pope's staff looking dejected with a full 10 minutes left to play, and Kentucky fans hitting the exits soon after.

They headed down the street, no doubt, into the abyss of live country music bars at the heart of Nashville's bustling entertainment district.

Hopefully they got to hear "My Old Kentucky Home" or "Coal Miner's Daughter."

They certainly needed some of the yesteryear they didn't see at Bridgestone Arena.

Tuscaloosa News sport columnist Chase Goodbread.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball made history in UA-Kentucky series: What it means

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