If it wasn't enough that Alabama rolled to a 15-point win over Kentucky, the fourth straight win Nate Oats has earned over second-year Wildcats head coach Mark Pope, Oats decided in the postgame press conference that he would rub salt in the wound with a truth bomb that resonated all the way back to Lexington.
Alabama's struggles on the glass made some believe Kentucky's bigs could be a mismatch against the Crimson Tide. But Oats saw something on tape that aided in creating an advantage for his team, one he wasn't afraid to share with the media after the game.
"We looked at a few different stats coming into this game, Oats said. "I had our guys pull every assist they’ve had, because when I watched them play, I didn’t feel like they moved the ball great. And then you look, and their assist rate’s actually pretty high. Well, do a little deeper dive, 27 assists, 27 assists against buy games that played a lot of zone. When they played high-major teams that were really good, their assist rate’s very low. They throw it into the bigs. They’re not really passing. They had seven assists out of the post in 13 games coming in.
"...We made plays on the post. Told our guards to go get it. ‘They’re not passing. Go get the ball. They’re trying to score when they throw it in there.’ So, our bigs fight the catch, force it out. Our guards, when they get it, go get it because they’re not passing the ball. I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
Alabama exploited a Kentucky weakness to roll past the Wildcats
Alabama's frontcourt proved to be a mismatch against Kentucky, and that was with only nine minutes from Aiden Sherrell, who suffered a knee injury in the first-half of the Crimson Tide's 89-74 win and didn't return.
Alabama got an outstanding effort out of Bucknell transfer Noah Williamson, who had far and away his best game of the season. He scored 10 points, grabbed four rebounds, and came up with two assists and two steals in 18 pivotal minutes.
Freshman guard Amari Allen started at the four in place of an injured Taylor Bol Bowen, and his effort on the glass was critical. He was the game's leading rebounder with nine, six of which came on the offensive end.
After the game, Oats was asked if Allen had filled the blue-collar void left behind by Mo Dioubate, who transferred to Kentucky in the offseason after spending two seasons at Alabama. Oats answered "100%."
Allen out Dioubate'd Dioubate, while also adding more overall skill on the offensive end. It was an upgrade for the Crimson Tide.
The Alabama win gets the Crimson Tide off to a 1-0 start in SEC play, and beating the blue blood at Kentucky has become a normal occurrence for the Crimson Tide under Oats. That's a fact that makes fans in Tuscaloosa happy, and leaves folks in Lexington scratching their heads.