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The good and bad news about Alabama basketball's ugly loss to Kentucky
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- The good and bad news about Alabama basketball's ugly loss to Kentucky
Go take a shower. Rinse that one off. Dwelling on the Alabama basketball loss to Kentucky won't do much good.
The Crimson Tide scored 95 points and yet still lost by more than 20. It doesn't get much more ugly than that for a defense.
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There was plenty of bad to take away from that result in which No. 13 Alabama went into Rupp Arena and lost 117-95 to No. 17 Kentucky . That ties for third-most points allowed for the Crimson Tide with a game against Vanderbilt in 1967.
The key will be shaking that one off and moving forward. The Crimson Tide's goals all remain intact, but it's hard not to worry about the defense.
What should be made of the loss to Kentucky? Here's the good news and the bad news.
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The bad news about Alabama basketball
How about the bad news first?
This was by far the worst performance for the Crimson Tide defense, but it wasn't a one off. Alabama coach Nate Oats has lamented the defensive effort of his team for much of the season, and for good reason. It has been far too inconsistent and not near as good as the defenses Alabama has had in its SEC-winning years under Oats. The 117 points allowed to Kentucky is the biggest defensive blemish on a season filled with them.
"I told our guys after the game, there have been question marks about our defense all year," Oats said. "Those question marks are all completely erased. Everybody knows we don't really guard at this point. I thought our effort stunk."
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The game also continued a trend this season: Alabama hasn't done well on the road for the most part against most good SEC teams. All three of the Crimson Tide's SEC losses have happened on the road, and the best team Alabama has beaten on the road was Mississippi State . The Crimson Tide doesn't really have a signature road win this season.
Turnovers have been an issue on the road. In each of its SEC road losses, Alabama has turned the ball over 15 or more times. Against Kentucky, Mark Sears had six turnovers and Aaron Estrada had five.
"Our guards have got to take care of the ball," Oats said. "They are just careless with some of them. Mark and Aaron are really good guards, but to have 11 turnovers between your starting backcourt, that's not a recipe for winning basketball."
It's troubling how the Crimson Tide has performed against good teams overall away from Coleman Coliseum, particularly during conference play.
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The good news about Alabama basketball
Ready to view that glass as half full?
That's just one loss and Alabama is still very much so in the mix to win the SEC. Take care of business against Ole Miss on the road and Tennessee at home, and the Crimson Tide should be in a good spot to win the SEC regular season title for a third time in four seasons. Perhaps the SEC can be won at home, and that's about as good of news as Alabama can get considering how it has done on the road at times.
Alabama also lost to Kentucky without Latrell Wrightsell Jr., one of its most efficient offensive players, one of its best shooters and one of its best perimeter defenders. He alone wouldn't have probably made up for the deficit, but he certainly could have helped. He missed the game with a head injury.
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Another item of good news: Alabama won't be able to play games at Coleman Coliseum in the postseason, but it also won't have to play true road games. Those are the environments where Alabama has stumbled the most; the Crimson Tide won't likely face tougher environments than it has faced in these SEC road losses.
Plus, Alabama scored 95 points in the loss at Rupp Arena. It's clear the offense can travel.
And most teams aren't going to shoot as well as Kentucky did; The Wildcats finished 41 of 65 (63%) from the field and 13 of 24 (54%) from deep.
The Crimson Tide can still win the SEC in the regular season, can still win the SEC Tournament and can still go on a run in March. But Alabama must rinse that Kentucky game out of the system. If so, it can be little more than a speed bump on the road to postseason success.
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Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter .
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball vs. Kentucky: The good and bad news about ugly loss
